Bringing seasonal help on board enables you to get through crunch periods without driving your year-round employees to exhaustion. But are seasonal workers covered by the same labor laws and regulations that apply to the rest of your workforce? Yes and no. Here's why.

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Follow the Rules When Hiring
Holiday Season Workers

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The rush is already on to line up seasonal help. Seasonal job postings on one
recruiting website started to hit peak demand levels from prior years in early
October, about a month earlier than usual. The projected total number of
seasonal jobs this holiday season — between 640,000 and 690,000 — is
expected by the National Retail Federation to be about the same as last year.
Employers might need to pay a little more for seasonal hires this year than in
the past, according to one informal survey. That's because with the
unemployment rate dropping lately, many workers can afford to be more
choosey. The survey, conducted by the Wall Street Journal, included
responses from economists and labor market experts.
Not all employers have the same busy seasons, of course, so your situation
could be different in terms of which months are the most hectic. Even so,
don't cut corners when selecting, hiring and training seasonal workers. Not
only do you want them to be well qualified for the seasonal job, but if you see
that some of them excel, you might keep them in mind when you need to fill
regular positions.

3. Which Laws Apply?
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Regardless of when and for how long you bring seasonal hires onboard, it's
important to be aware that most laws and regulations pertaining to year-
round employees apply to seasonal workers as well. Those include worker
safety regulations from OSHA, workers' comp, wage and hour laws, and anti-
discrimination rules, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.
When it comes to employee benefits for seasonal workers, some are easier to
determine than others. Retirement plans are fairly straightforward. In fact,
this is a moot point for most seasonal workers, because you can generally
require employees to wait a year or more to join your retirement plan.
The rules regarding eligibility for health care benefits is where things may get
complicated.

4. Health Plan Issues
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Employers need to consider whether seasonal hires will increase the staff size
to the point that the company becomes subject to the Affordable Care Act's
employer mandate (assuming it isn't already).

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The basic rule is that if you have at least 50 full-time and full-time equivalent
employees, you are subject to the employer mandate (also called the
"employer shared responsibility provision"). Even so, you are only required to
offer health benefits to full-time employees.
There is, however, an exception where seasonal workers are concerned.
In a Q&A explaining the Affordable Care Act, the IRS puts it this way: "If an
employer's workforce exceeds 50 full-time employees including full-time
equivalent employees for 120 days or fewer during a calendar year, and the
employees in excess of 50 who were employed during that period of no more
than 120 days were seasonal workers, the employer is not considered an
applicable large employer."

6. "Workers" vs."Employees"
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The definition of a seasonal worker offered by the IRS is relatively loose.
"Seasonal workers are workers who perform labor or services on a seasonal
basis, as defined by the Secretary of Labor, and include retail workers
employed exclusively during holiday seasons. For this purpose, employers
may apply a reasonable, good faith interpretation of the term 'seasonal
worker.'" In other words, those people you hire for a few weeks to augment a
retail store's staff for the holiday shopping season are seasonal workers. They
aren't part of your headcount of full-time and full-time equivalent employees.
The IRS defines a seasonal employee as one who "is hired into a position for
which the customary annual employment is six months or less and for which
the period of employment begins each calendar year in approximately the
same part of the year, such as summer or winter." Some retail stores, for
example, have regular staff members who are laid off for several months
during the slower season, and return to work when business picks up, without
the need to be rehired.

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Specifically, is a seasonal employee counted as a full-time employee?
The IRS explains that for purposes of the shared responsibility provisions, an
employee is considered full-time for a calendar month if he or she averages at
least 30 hours of service per week, or 130 hours of service per month.
If this sounds complicated, it is. That's why if you're considering hiring new
seasonal employees (as opposed to seasonal workers such as for the holiday
season) you may want to consult with your ACA legal expert to sort through
the complex IRS regulations.
Likewise, to be on the safe side, companies that are not already subject to the
employer mandate — but are close — may want to seek legal counsel before
making seasonal hiring plans.

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