WASHINGTON – A U.S. Senate proposal offered by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) would redefine full-time as 40 hours a week in regards to the Affordable Care Act, Nation’s Restaurant News reports. 

“Most Hoosiers I know think 40 hours is full time,” said Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), a supporter of the bill. “We need to change the definition of a ‘full-time employee’ in the [PPACA] to bring it in line with what most Americans have traditionally recognized as full time.”

The Forty Hours is Full Time Act of 2013 would change the definition of a full-time worker as one who clocks 40 hours weekly or 174 hours monthly on a 52-week year. Right now, the health care reform law measures full time as employees working either 30 hours weekly or 130 hours monthly.

The foodservice industry is throwing its support behind the bill. The International Franchise Association “has worked diligently to educate lawmakers since the law was passed that the definition of a full-time employee under the [PPACA] is unworkable for employers in the franchising industry, which include many restaurants, retailers, hotel owners and service-related business owners, and supports more than one out of every eight private sector jobs in America,” said IFA president and chief executive Steve Caldeira. “We are pleased lawmakers are finally heeding our call to provide a more workable and common-sense solution for employers under the ACA.”

“The definition of full-time employee is of particular importance to restaurants because of the industry’s unique reliance on large numbers of part-time and seasonal workers with fluctuating and unpredictable work hours, as well as unpredictable lengths of service,” said Scott DeFife, the National Restaurant Association’s executive vice president for Policy and Government Affairs. “The law’s definition of full time as 30 hours of service per week, per month on average is significantly below the standard most employers use today, based on other federal labor laws.”