Wednesday, October 23, 2013

How Many Working Hours in a Year?

What is the standard man-year (woman-year, person-year, whatever) in number of hours? Most of you will probably guess 2,080 (40 hours per week times 52 weeks in a year). That might be close enough for a lot of purposes but not nearly precise enough for Government purposes. Wait! What about that old adage "Its close enough for Government work"? Well, that old adage doesn't apply when it comes to Excel equipped Government contracting officers and their auditors.

More than a few Government solicitations call out a CME (Contractor Manyear Equivalent) of 2,087 hours. How do they get 2,087 hours?

There are more than 52 weeks in a year. There are actually 52.14286 weeks per year (365 days divided by 7 days). Multiplying that by 40 hours gives you 2,085.6 hours per year - not quite to the 2,087 hours yet.

To get to the 2,087 CME, we have to factor in leap years. Every 4th year we get an extra day and that raises the average number of weeks per year (over a four year period) from 52.14286 weeks to 52.17857 weeks per year. Multiplying 52.17857 by 40 hours gives us the 2,087 Contractor Manyear Equivalent (CME).

So, now you know.

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