Employers with an average of 50 full-time employees or full-time employee equivalents (FTEs) from a single organization or a collection of connected entities are considered Applicable Large Employers, or ALEs. FTE refers to a team of two or more workers who put in at least thirty hours a week. Therefore, an ALE has one FTE if its employees work 15 hours apiece. When there are several entities in the organization, ALE is referred to as ALE members.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) uses the term “ALE.” According to the ACA, big businesses must provide data to the government once a year. The IRS may impose penalties on an ALE for noncompliance. It is not always required to have FTEs in order to qualify as an ALE. ACA instead looks at the average number of full-time employees in a given year.
