Here’s What Happens When You Hire Your 50th Employee

Reaching 50 employees is an important milestone for any organization. If you’re about to hire your 50th employee, make sure you have these HR bases covered so you can celebrate with confidence.

Here are four HR areas that will impact you when you reach the 50-employee threshold:

1. The Affordable Care Act (ACA)

The ACA has some major impacts for organizations with 50 or more employees. The biggest — you’re now required to offer affordable group health care to all full-time employees or full-time equivalents (FTEs) or pay a tax penalty. This is known as the Employer Mandate. You’ll be required to comply with the Employer Mandate the year following that in which you hired your 50th FTE. So, if you reach the 50 FTE threshold in 2021 and maintain or exceed it for the majority of the year, then the ACA Employer Mandate will take effect in 2022.

2. The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

FMLA is a federal leave law that allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a serious health condition, parental leave, family leave, and other reasons. This applies to private employers with 50 or more employees who work at least 20 workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year. This means that if you had at least 50 employees working at your company for 20+ workweeks in 2020, the FLMA provisions would apply for all of 2021.

3. Demographic Reporting (EEO-1)

If your organization has 50+ employees and is also a federal contractor, then the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) requires you to file an EEO-1. The report is a compliance survey that requires company employment data to be categorized by race/ ethnicity, gender, and job category.

If your company isn’t a federal contractor, then this requirement only kicks in once you reach the 100 employee mark.

4. State and Local Laws

While the first three are federal statutes, there are many state and local laws governed by employee count, some of which apply at the 50-worker mark. A few examples for 50+ employee companies are:

• California requires two hours of anti-harassment training every two years for managers.
• Several state and city minimum wage laws take effect at 50 employees.
• In New York, you’ll need to provide employees with 90 days’ notice for any mass layoffs or relocations.

Whether your organization is nearing the 50 employee mark or has already passed it, GTM can help make sure you’re HR-ready. isolved, our payroll and HR platform, lets you streamline HR functions and future-proof your business, no matter how large you grow. Easily and securely store and share employee data with a single-source database. Eliminate your paper HR files and streamline your HR workflows. Turn your HR department into a strategy center that is focused on building culture and improving organizational efficiencies, while ensuring compliance with labor laws. Request a free quote to learn more.