Only if you have 50 or more full-time equivalent employees. Below that, there is no federal requirement at all, and the IRS notes that “the vast majority of employers will fall below the ALE threshold.”

A full-time employee is anyone averaging 30 hours a week or 130 hours a month. Part-time hours get combined into full-time equivalents, so add those up before assuming you are under. At 50 or more, you either offer affordable coverage that meets minimum value or you potentially owe a payment. For 2027 those amounts are $3,780 per full-time employee if you offer nothing, or $5,670 per employee who gets a marketplace subsidy if your coverage is unaffordable.

Two things worth knowing if you are under 50 and want to offer coverage anyway. You may qualify for the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit, worth up to 50% of your premium contributions, if you have fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees, pay average annual wages under about $69,000, cover at least half of each employee’s premium, and buy through SHOP. And if you cannot hit a carrier’s minimum participation requirement, federal rules require carriers to sell to you anyway during a November 15 through December 15 window each year.