Bi-Weekly Pay Periods

When you pay employees every other week, it is considered bi-weekly pay. If you operate on a biweekly pay schedule, your employees will receive their paychecks on the same day each pay period. Typically, employers choose to pay employees every other Friday. With a biweekly pay schedule, employees will receive a total of 26 checks per year. Most months have two pay periods, but two months of the year will have three.

Under a semi-monthly pay schedule, employees are consistently paid twice per month, or 24 times per year. In a bi-weekly pay schedule, employees are paid 26 times per year. Another difference between bi-weekly and semi-monthly pay schedules is the payday. For bi-weekly, employees are typically paid every other Friday. For semi-monthly, employers typically choose the 1st and 15th or 15th and 30th of each month to pay employees. This means the actual day employees get
paid varies.

As an example, let’s say you are a salaried employee that makes $50,000 annually. On a biweekly pay schedule, your $50,000 annual pay is divided between 26 pay cycles. Therefore, each paycheck you receive will be for $1,923.08 every other week before deductions.