Otherwise Excludable EEs question

It's actually 2 questions!

1) If a plan defines a year of service for eligibility as 1,000 hours, would you HAVE to look back at hours history to determine the otherwise excludable employees (to see if any never met 1,000 hours).  Or could you just use hire date (and birth) for administrative ease/sponsor does not provide hours?  Especially for new takeovers, it's tough for sponsors (especially large ones in certain industries) to provide hours history for a long period of time.  I'd just assume a part time employee who has been at a company for 20 years met 1,000 hours once.  I think it's common practice to make certain assumptions but can't find any language anywhere.

2) If a plan uses elapsed time for eligibility, could they not use the 1,000 hours to determine if they ever met a year of service for otherwise excludable classification?  I think the regs just reference year of service, which would then come down to how the plan defines it.

Thanks!

ultimately it is up to you how you would handle such an employee.

looking at last years test did the prior admin count the person as otherwise excludable?  granted that might not prove anything, but it is a basis. If it is a large plan, it probably won't make a difference in the ADP test anyway - it is hard to swing the numbers much with the inclusion or exclusion of a body.

as for the situation of elapsed time, the whole idea of 'otherwise excludable' is,

if the plan had 1 year wait and maximum exclusion would the person have been excluded? and in that case, yes, if you know hours and the person never worked 1000 he would be otherwise excludable.

Always the voice I'm looking for, Tom.  Thank you.

So the reason I ask for this one  - a supermarket chain that allows employees in after 6 months with no exclusions.  A large percentage of these could simply be part timers in school, based on compensation figures. 

agree

if hours aren't provided, you could probably do a reasonable estimate based on min wage

e.g. if I took comp / est 7.25.  I think most states are at least that now.

if you are no where close to 1000 hours then never a year of service. if min wage was more then the hours would be even fewer.

if you have someone above 1000 then you would need to dig deeper.