Biweekly vs semimonthly pay: what's the difference?

Both schedules pay you about twice a month, so they're easy to mix up. Biweekly means every two weeks, always on the same weekday, which works out to 26 paychecks in most years. Semimonthly means twice a month on set dates, such as the 15th and the last day of the month, which is always 24 paychecks. The annual salary is the same either way. What changes is the size of each check, when it arrives, and how overtime lines up with pay periods.

26 paychecks vs 24

For a salaried employee, the per-check amount is the salary divided by the number of pay periods. On a $60,000 salary, biweekly pay is $60,000 ÷ 26 = $2,307.69 per check, and semimonthly pay is $60,000 ÷ 24 = $2,500.00. The biweekly check is $192.31 smaller, but you get two more of them, so both add up to $60,000.

Biweekly suits hourly payroll because each pay period holds exactly two workweeks. Semimonthly suits salaried payroll because the paydays match monthly bills. Weekly pay gives the most and smallest checks; monthly pay gives the fewest and largest. Many states set a minimum pay frequency, and the Department of Labor keeps a table of state payday requirements.

Three-paycheck months

A year has 52 weeks plus a day or two, so 26 biweekly paydays can't split evenly across 12 months. Ten months get two paychecks and two months get three. Which months depends on the date of your first payday. If you're paid every other Friday starting January 8, 2027, your three-paycheck months in 2027 are April (the 2nd, 16th and 30th) and October (the 1st, 15th and 29th).

Every 11 or 12 years, the calendar lines up so a biweekly schedule has 27 paydays in one calendar year. A Friday schedule that includes January 1, 2027 is one of them: it has three paydays in January, July and December 2027. Some employers move a holiday payday like January 1 to the day before, which shifts the extra check into the previous year. For salaried staff, employers handle a 27-paycheck year in different ways: some pay the usual amount each check (so you earn a little more that year), and some divide the salary by 27. Your employer's payroll policy decides.

Semimonthly pay never has a third check in a month. When a payday falls on a weekend or holiday, the employer moves it to a nearby business day, often the one before. Company policy, and sometimes state law, decides which.

Hourly workers and overtime

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, overtime is figured by the workweek, not the pay period. A workweek is a fixed, recurring period of 168 hours (seven consecutive 24-hour days), and covered nonexempt employees earn at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours over 40 in it. Hours can't be averaged across two or more weeks, whatever the pay schedule (DOL Fact Sheet #23).

That matters on a biweekly schedule. Say you earn $20.00 an hour and work 45 hours in week one and 35 in week two. That's 80 hours, the same as two normal weeks, but week one has 5 overtime hours:

Averaged over the two weeks, it would have been $1,600.00, which is $50.00 short. Semimonthly pay periods don't line up with workweeks at all, so a workweek often starts in one pay period and ends in the next. Overtime is still worked out per workweek. Overtime earned in a week is generally due on the regular payday for that period, and if it can't be worked out in time, no later than the next payday after it can be. The hourly vs salary help article shows how overtime appears on a pay stub.

Hourly workers paid semimonthly also see their gross pay move around even on a steady schedule, because each half-month holds anywhere from 9 to 12 weekdays. At $20.00 an hour and 8 hours a weekday, that's anywhere from $1,440.00 to $1,920.00 per check.

Budgeting on each schedule

• Biweekly: plan your monthly budget on two paychecks and treat the third-check months as extra, for savings or debt. Paydays drift through the month, so rent may not line up with the same check every time.
• Semimonthly: paydays land on the same dates every month, which makes monthly bills easier to match. Each check is bigger, but there are no extra checks.
• Weekly: smaller, steady checks, and five paydays in some months. Easier for week-to-week spending, harder for large monthly bills.
• Monthly: one large check and the longest wait between paydays. It takes the most planning.

Watch benefit deductions on biweekly pay. Some employers take health premiums from all 26 checks; others take them from only 24 and skip the third check in a month, which makes those checks bigger. Your pay stub shows which.

Does pay frequency change your taxes?

Not over a full year. The IRS withholding method annualizes each paycheck: they multiply it by the number of pay periods, work out a year's tax, then divide back. So the per-check withholding changes with the schedule, but the yearly total comes out nearly the same. Your actual tax bill depends only on your annual income.

The exception is anything set as a fixed amount per check. Extra withholding in Step 4(c) of your W-4, or a flat-dollar 401(k) contribution, adds up differently: $100 a check is $2,600 a year on biweekly pay but $2,400 on semimonthly. If your employer changes your pay schedule, recheck those amounts. You can fill in a new form with the free W-4 builder.

To see your own numbers, the paycheck calculator lets you switch between weekly, biweekly, semimonthly and monthly pay for any salary and state. For what each line on the check means, see gross vs net pay.