Pay Period

The four common pay frequencies

• Weekly (52 periods): standard in construction, manufacturing, staffing agencies and many hourly operations. Simple for overtime, more payroll runs.
• Biweekly (26 periods): every other week on the same weekday, the most common frequency in the US. Every period has exactly two workweeks.
• Semimonthly (24 periods): twice a month on fixed dates, often the 15th and the last day. Common for salaried workforces.
• Monthly (12 periods): less common in the US and restricted for many workers by state law; more common in other countries.

The pay period is different from the payday. A biweekly period might run Sunday to Saturday and be paid the following Friday, a six-day lag that gives payroll time to collect timesheets and approve payroll.

Biweekly vs semimonthly

They sound alike but behave differently. Biweekly gives 26 paychecks, and the payday falls on the same weekday every time; two months a year have three paydays. Semimonthly gives 24 paychecks on fixed dates; when the date lands on a weekend or holiday, you pay the business day before.

For hourly employees, biweekly is easier. Overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act is calculated per workweek, and a biweekly period always contains exactly two whole workweeks. A semimonthly period of 15 or 16 days cuts through workweeks, so payroll has to track overtime across periods and sometimes pay it a period late, which some states do not allow.

For salaried employees, semimonthly makes benefit deductions easy, because 24 periods split a monthly premium neatly in two. With biweekly pay, benefits teams have to decide what happens in the two three-paycheck months: take a deduction from every check (spreading the premium over 26) or skip the third check.

State pay frequency rules

Most states set a minimum pay frequency, and many set different rules for different kinds of workers. California requires most employees to be paid at least twice a month. New York requires manual workers to be paid weekly unless the employer has state authorization to pay less often. Other states allow monthly pay for exempt staff but not for hourly workers. States also limit how long the lag between the end of a pay period and payday can be. Before changing frequency, check the rules in every state where you have employees, and give the advance written notice some states require. Rules vary by state.

The 27th pay period

A year has 52 weeks plus one or two days, so roughly every 11 years a biweekly calendar has 27 paydays instead of 26. For hourly staff nothing changes; they are paid for the hours they worked. For salaried staff it matters. If you divide annual salary by 26 every period, employees receive about 3.8% more than their stated salary that year. Employers handle it by paying the extra check (and budgeting for it), or by recalculating the per-period amount as salary ÷ 27 for that year and telling employees in advance. Check that recalculation does not push exempt employees below the FLSA salary threshold for any week.

Choosing or changing pay frequency

High-volume hourly employers usually choose weekly or biweekly. Weekly pay is a real recruiting advantage for entry-level hourly jobs; many candidates are choosing between employers on how soon they get paid. Some employers keep a biweekly run and add earned wage access instead, which gives workers access to wages earned between paydays without the cost of running payroll weekly.

Changing frequency is a project: new payroll calendars, benefit deduction recalculation, timekeeping cutoffs, notices to employees and, often, a short transition period. Plan any special runs carefully; see off-cycle payroll for corrections between scheduled dates.