These regular events are a large part of what makes up our lives. Make your proof of income pay stubs quickly and easily with our state of the art pay stub generator.

The word biweekly may sometimes have a dash between the prefix bi and the rest of the word. Whether someone is describing a bi-weekly paycheck or biweekly payment plans, it’s essential to know that both are accepted forms of the word. A biweekly period begins with Monday and ends with Sunday. BLS reports that 36% of businesses with fewer than 10 employees pay on a weekly basis. Weekly pay periods are very common in the construction, manufacturing, mining, and transportation industries. Ultimately, this decision is up to you and the particular payday requirements in your state.

How to calculate biweekly pay

If you want to learn more about using the English language properly, feel free to check out The Word Counter blog! We’re constantly putting up new content that can help you to understand not only what words you’re saying but why you’re saying them and where they come from! Our goal is to provide people with an invaluable resource and wealth of knowledge for speaking in the most educated way possible in the world today. When it comes to identifying which definition of biweekly is being used, it’s essential to clarify what the person is saying instead of just assuming. The word biweekly can create a fair amount of confusion because of its confusing double meaning.

• You can also use ‘biweekly’ to refer to something that happens two times per week, in which case there are 104 periods each year.
• Enter a start date and an end date and the week calculator will return the number of weeks and days separating the two.
• Ideally, you’d choose a payday schedule that works well for your budget, resources and employees.
• There are also strategic considerations when setting pay frequency.
• In contrast, people who work on a monthly payroll only receive 12 paychecks per year.
• While it’s the most affordable and least labor-intensive option, most employees don’t prefer it.

For, as anyone who pays attention to our work surely recognizes, we are at the mercy of the language. Biweekly and bimonthly each have a pair of meanings that are unhelpfully at odds with one another. However, some people like to keep the hyphen in to stick as close to AP Style rules as possible.

This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. The only time you might find it useful to do so is when you write it as part of a title. If you like to capitalize every other word in your title, then it’s wise to capitalize both parts of the hyphen too.

A weekly pay schedule requires 52 paychecks, where as a biweekly pay schedule requires 26 paychecks. The four types of pay periods are weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, and monthly. If your payday falls on one of these “extra” days in the calendar year, you could have 53 weekly pay periods instead of 52, or 27 biweekly pay periods instead of 26. In addition to pay, this throws a wrench in things like payroll deductions for benefits. Semimonthly means your employees get paid on two specific days of the month, regardless of when they fall.

If the majority of your employees are paid hourly, it might be best to opt for biweekly. Psychologically, biweekly pay can encourage employees to change their behavior for the better. This includes more consistent behavior like taking on overtime to more consistent behavior like paying rent on time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team. Mary Girsch-Bock is the expert on accounting software and payroll software for The Ascent. If you’re using the wrong credit or debit card, it could be costing you serious money. Our experts love this top pick, which features a 0% intro APR for 15 months, an insane cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee. Our Pay Stub templates are professional and easy to use.

Below are a few pros and cons for both biweekly and semimonthly payroll. Ultimately, biweekly pay can give employees a sense of increased financial security. Although it means that they receive less per paycheck, this means that they receive more checks per year. In cases of emergency, this means that they can move more quickly to resolve their financial issues. The term “bi-weekly” also means to repeat every two weeks (26 periods per year). Bi-weekly synonyms are 28 day or 2 week, or twice a week.

How do you use the week calculator?

Employers with biweekly payroll are able to more quickly re-adjust their pay to make up for any issues with employee payroll. Employees need to be more conscious that they will only get paid every other week instead of once a month. While it’s still possible to manage expenses with biweekly pay, it’s more work than with traditional weekly pay. The biweekly pay system means that the boss will submit a total of 26 paychecks per year. Semi-monthly pay periods run from the 1st of the month through the 15th, and from the 16th through the end of the month. This can be challenging to administer because your pay periods no longer coincide with the work week.

However, many things actually happen on a biweekly basis, whether we intend for them to or not. That’s why to word biweekly is so essential — it details a regular event that may not happen on the same periodic basis as many other kinds of events. Employees who only work every other week might find that their hours are not worth as much as those who work weekly.

This may be a disadvantage for those that rely cannot manage their expenses. The most common pay periods are weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, and monthly. In most states, paying at least semi-monthly is acceptable, but some states have more stringent requirements. Remember, biweekly means you get paid every other week, usually on Friday.

The only exception is leap years whose January 1 falls on Thursday (like 2032) or Friday (like 2044). Those years can have 27 biweekly pay periods, depending on the first payment date of the year. You have the choice to remove the deductions for the last payroll of the month during the three-payroll month, or calculate the deduction total based on 26 pay periods rather than 24.

What Is Biweekly Pay?

Biweekly is a good option to consider, and it’s also the most popular option in the U.S. — the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 36.5% of private businesses have decided to use biweekly pay as their pay system of choice. Gusto offers excellent payroll processing for small businesses, with several plans available to choose from. Gusto includes flexible payroll schedules, unlimited payroll runs, and multistate payroll capability. While many payroll software and services providers offer an unlimited number of payroll runs, there are some payroll service providers that charge for each payroll run. This can affect the final cost of the service depending on the payroll cycle that you choose.

QuickBooks Payroll includes good benefit management capability, making it easy to track all employee benefits including monthly deductions. There is also a mobile app for iOS and Android devices, and the Auto Payroll option makes it easy to pay salaried employees. There are numerous payroll service and software applications on the market today that automate the entire process from beginning to end. financial statements 2020 More and more companies are switching over to biweekly pay and there are good reasons for this. Once again, you’ll have to weigh your talent management goals against your administrative capabilities to find the ideal schedule for your payroll processing. “Bi-” is a prefix word, so it needs to be included as part of “weekly” when it’s modifying it to show that something happens once every two weeks.

How Many Biweekly In A Year?

Ideally, you’d choose a payday schedule that works well for your budget, resources and employees. To help you figure out your payroll frequency, we’ve created this handy payroll calendar. Once you start the year, you’ll pay your employees once every two weeks. This might sound simple, but that means for two months out of the year, you’ll have three pay periods instead of two. One of the biggest things to consider when making the decision whether to pay employees biweekly versus semimonthly is the number of hourly employees you currently need to pay.

Payroll Calendar: Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Bi-Monthly & Monthly

You have to use the mathematical formula in order to calculate biweekly pay. The employee will see that their biweekly pay has been calculated as a normal paycheck. However, since their paycheck is actually half of their monthly salary, the employee will simply receive this total 26 times over the course of the year.