Full-time employment is employment in which the employee works the full number of hours defined as such by his/her employer. Full-time employment often comes with benefits that are not typically offered to part-time, temporary, or flexible workers, such as annual leave, sickleave, and health insurance. Full-time jobs are often considered careers. They sometimes pay more than part-time jobs, and usually carry more hours per week.
Full-time varies between company, and is often based on the shift the employee must work during each workweek. The "standard" workweek consists of five eight-hour days, totaling 40 hours. While a four-day week generally consists of four ten-hour days, it may also consist of as little as nine hours, or ten hours including a half-hour lunch (full-time being 40, 36, or 38 hours respectively). Twelve-hour shifts are three days per week, thus 36 hours is always full-time, compensating slightly for the greatly increased fatigue which a person experiences on such long shifts. Shifts can also be very irregular, as in retail stores, but are still full-time if the required number of hours is reached. A person who needs full-time work but is dropped to part-time is underemployed, which is sometimes a form of constructive dismissal to avoid paying unemployment benefits to a laid-off worker.
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The most common full-time workweek in the U.S. is between 32–40 hours. In France it is a government-mandated 35 hours per week. In Germany it is between 35–40 hours per week, and in Denmark it is 37 hours per week and 40 hours per week in Iceland. In Australia it is around 38–40 hours per week, and in the U.K., whilst there is no formal definition, it is generally considered to be around 40 hours a week. A person working more than full-time is working overtime, and may be entitled to extra per-hour wages (but not salary).
“Full-time” can also be used in reference what a head to a student (usually in higher education) who takes a full load of course work each academic term, commonly 12 credit hours or more. This translates to 12 "hours" (often of 50 minutes instead of 60 minutes each) in class per week. "Lab hours" often count only as one-half or one-third of a credit hour. In the U.S., international students must maintain full-time status for student visas.[1] Adult students (typically up to age 22 or 23) may also fall under their parents' health insurance (and possibly car insurance and other services) if they are full-time, except for one term per year (usually summer). Students may also be eligible for elected office in student government or other student organizations only if they are full-time. In the United states, the Department of Labor has a full-time student program which allows employers to pay not less than 85% of the minimum wage to the student/employee.[2]