The number of hours an employee must work to be considered full-time and eligible for employee benefits such as health insurance, paid time off (including vacation leave and sick leave), and retirement accounts (401k and related employer-contributions) is generally in the sole discretion of the employer. This is because an employer is not obligated to provide these employee benefits or fringe benefits to any employee, whether full-time or part-time.

For example, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not define full-time employment or part-time employment. And whether an employee is considered full-time or part-time does not change the application of the FLSA—or the application of the Service Contract Act (41 US.C. §351) or the Davis-Bacon Act wage and fringe benefit requirements (40 U.S.C. §3141).

In Idaho, as in other states, there is no specific number of hours that legally defines an employee as full-time for the purposes of eligibility for employee benefits such as health insurance, paid time off, and retirement accounts. The determination of full-time status is typically at the discretion of the employer. Federal laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) do not provide a definition for full-time or part-time employment, which means that the provision of benefits is not mandated by these laws and does not affect their application. Similarly, the Service Contract Act and the Davis-Bacon Act focus on wage and fringe benefit requirements for certain types of contracts and do not mandate specific benefits for full-time employees. Employers in Idaho may, however, be subject to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which has specific provisions regarding the provision of health insurance to full-time employees, generally defined under the ACA as those working 30 hours or more per week.