Full Time Equivalent (FTE)
A way to measure all or a fraction of an employee’s involvement in a project or a student’s enrollment at an educational institution. An FTE of 1.0 means that the person is equivalent to a full-time worker or student, while an FTE of 0.5 signals only half-time involvement. FTE is defined by the federal government as the number of total hours worked divided by the maximum number of compensable hours in a work year, as defined by law (typically as 2,080 hours). A single worker occupying a paid full-time job all year would consume one FTE. Two employees working for 1,040 hours each would consume one FTE between the two of them. A 9-month faculty member’s FTE is 0.75 and a 12-month faculty member’s FTE is 1.0.