diff --git a/src/vt/vrt/collection/balance/lb_data_holder.cc b/src/vt/vrt/collection/balance/lb_data_holder.cc
index fdc1487606..5ed8b917c0 100644
--- a/src/vt/vrt/collection/balance/lb_data_holder.cc
+++ b/src/vt/vrt/collection/balance/lb_data_holder.cc
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ std::unique_ptr<nlohmann::json> LBDataHolder::rankAttributesToJson() const {
 void LBDataHolder::addInitialTask(nlohmann::json& j, std::size_t n) const {
   j["tasks"][n]["resource"] = "cpu";
   j["tasks"][n]["node"] = vt::theContext()->getNode();
-  j["tasks"][n]["time"] = 0;
+  j["tasks"][n]["time"] = 0.0;
   outputEntity(
     j["tasks"][n]["entity"], ElementIDStruct()
   );
diff --git a/tests/unit/collection/test_lb_data_holder.cc b/tests/unit/collection/test_lb_data_holder.cc
index 8bee8042cb..d13f51fc6b 100644
--- a/tests/unit/collection/test_lb_data_holder.cc
+++ b/tests/unit/collection/test_lb_data_holder.cc
@@ -285,6 +285,23 @@ TEST_F(TestLBDataHolder, test_lb_entity_attributes) {
   EXPECT_EQ("abc", (*outJsonPtr)["tasks"][0]["attributes"]["stringSample"]);
 }
 
+TEST_F(TestLBDataHolder, test_default_time_format) {
+  using LBDataHolder = vt::vrt::collection::balance::LBDataHolder;
+
+  nlohmann::json json;
+  json["metadata"]["type"] = "LBDatafile";
+
+  addPhasesDataToJson(json, num_phases, {});
+
+  LBDataHolder testObj(json);
+  auto outJsonPtr = testObj.toJson(0);
+  ASSERT_TRUE(outJsonPtr != nullptr);
+
+  for (auto& task: (*outJsonPtr)["tasks"]) {
+    EXPECT_EQ(true, task["time"].is_number_float());
+  }
+}
+
 }}}} // end namespace vt::tests::unit::lb
 
 #endif /*vt_check_enabled(lblite)*/