Biweekly Pay: What It Means for Employers

What it means in practice

Biweekly pay is one way to set the pay period for your payroll: each paycheck covers 14 days of work and paydays fall every other week. Federal tax regulations define the payroll period as "the period of service for which a payment of wages is ordinarily made to an employee by his employer" and list biweekly among the standard payroll periods (26 CFR 31.3401(b)-1(a) and (d)). It is also the most common choice. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that in February 2023, 43.0 percent of private establishments paid every two weeks, against 27.0 percent weekly, 19.8 percent semimonthly and 10.3 percent monthly, and 66.6 percent of establishments with 1,000 or more employees paid biweekly.

Biweekly is not semimonthly. Publication 15-T (2026) counts 26 biweekly pay periods a year and 24 semimonthly ones. The Texas Workforce Commission's employer guidebook explains: "Biweekly pay plans feature two-week pay periods, while semi-monthly pay plans involve pay periods that start on specific dates and end on specific dates within each month," so semimonthly periods run from 13 to 16 days. It adds that salaried employees receive the same amount on each paycheck under either plan, while hourly totals normally vary. A biweekly period that starts when your workweek starts always holds exactly two complete workweeks; a semimonthly period usually splits a workweek at one or both ends.

26 paydays, sometimes 27. Twenty-six paydays at 14-day intervals put the 26th payday 25 x 14 = 350 days after the first, and a 27th would land 364 days after the first. A common year has 365 days, so a 27th payday falls in the same year only if the first payday is January 1 (day 1 plus 364 is day 365, December 31); in a 366-day leap year the first payday can be January 1 or 2. The calendar slips one day a year against a fixed 14-day cycle (365 - 364), or two in a leap year, so a given cycle reaches a 27-payday year about once every 11 years (14 / 1.25 = 11.2). Every month, at 28 days or more, holds at least two paydays, and in a 26-payday year exactly two months hold three (26 - 24 = 2).

Example 1: a 27-payday year. A Remindax illustration: an employer pays every other Friday, and the first payday of 2032 is Friday, January 2, 2032. Because 2032 is a leap year, January 2 plus 364 days is Friday, December 31, 2032, so the year has 27 paydays, with three in January (2, 16 and 30), July (2, 16 and 30) and December (3, 17 and 31). Check your own cycle by adding 364 days to the first payday of the year.

What federal wage law says about frequency. The overtime regulations state: "There is no requirement in the Act that overtime compensation be paid weekly." The general rule is that overtime earned in a workweek "must be paid on the regular pay day for the period in which such workweek ends," and if the amount cannot be determined in time, no later than the next payday after it can be computed (29 CFR 778.106). Which frequencies are allowed, and how soon after the period ends you must pay, are mostly state questions.

Overtime on a biweekly schedule. The Fair Labor Standards Act measures hours by the workweek. The regulations say the Act "does not permit averaging of hours over 2 or more weeks," and that this holds "regardless of whether he is paid on a daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly or other basis" (29 CFR 778.104). The workweek is a fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 hours that may begin on any day and at any hour (29 CFR 778.105). The Department of Labor says covered, non-exempt employees must receive overtime for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, so a biweekly payroll totals week one and week two separately, never as one 80-hour block.

Example 2: hourly employee. A Remindax illustration: an employee earns $18 an hour and works 44 hours in week one and 36 hours in week two, 80 hours in all. Paying 80 hours at $18 gives $1,440, which is wrong. Week one is 40 hours at $18 ($720) plus 4 overtime hours at $27 ($108), or $828; week two is 36 hours at $18, or $648. The biweekly gross is $1,476. The $36 difference is the half-time premium on the 4 overtime hours, which the short second week cannot cancel (29 CFR 778.104).

Salaried non-exempt employees. For overtime purposes, a salary that covers more than a workweek "must be reduced to its workweek equivalent." The regulation gives the method for monthly salaries (multiply by 12, divide by 52) and semimonthly salaries (multiply by 24, divide by 52), then divides the weekly amount by the hours the salary is intended to cover (29 CFR 778.113). Applying the same method to a biweekly salary means multiplying by 26 and dividing by 52, which is half the biweekly amount. See salaried non-exempt and salaried employee.

Example 3: biweekly salary with overtime. A Remindax illustration: a non-exempt employee is paid $2,000 biweekly for a 40-hour workweek. The weekly equivalent is $2,000 x 26 / 52 = $1,000, and the regular rate is $1,000 / 40 = $25 an hour. If the employee works 40 hours in week one and 45 in week two, the 5 overtime hours are owed at $37.50 each, or $187.50, so the paycheck is $2,187.50. Following the pattern in 29 CFR 778.113(a), the salary covers the first 40 hours of each week, and a short week does not offset a long one.

Exempt employees. The salary level for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions is $684 per week, which "may be translated into equivalent amounts for periods longer than one week": biweekly, a salary of not less than $1,368, though "the shortest period of payment that will meet this compensation requirement is one week" (29 CFR 541.600). The Department of Labor republished these 2019 regulations in May 2026 after the 2024 rule was vacated. Paying biweekly does not loosen the salary basis test: an exempt employee must "receive the full salary for any week in which the employee performs any work" (29 CFR 541.602(a)), though you may pay a proportionate part for time actually worked in the first and last week of employment (29 CFR 541.602(b)(6)); see prorating pay and exempt vs. non-exempt employees.

Example 4: converting an annual salary. A Remindax illustration: a $58,500 annual salary is $58,500 / 26 = $2,250.00 per biweekly paycheck, compared with $2,437.50 semimonthly, $1,125.00 weekly and $4,875.00 monthly. The 29 CFR 778.113 conversions agree: $4,875 x 12 / 52 = $1,125 a week, and $2,250 x 26 / 52 = $1,125 a week. In a 27-payday year, keeping $2,250 per paycheck pays $60,750 for the calendar year, while dividing by 27 pays about $2,166.67 per check. The federal sources cited here do not prescribe either approach, so it comes from the employer's pay policy or employment agreement and any applicable state law. Either check is above the $1,368 biweekly exempt salary level.

Withholding on a biweekly payroll. IRS Publication 15 (2026) says that with a regular payroll period you withhold for that period "even if your employee doesn't work the full period." Publication 15-T (2026) builds biweekly into each method. Worksheet 1A for automated systems multiplies the taxable wages for the payroll period by the pay periods in Table 3 (26 for biweekly), applies the annual percentage method tables and divides back by 26; the manual percentage and wage bracket sections have tables headed "BIWEEKLY Payroll Period." On Form W-4, the Step 3 credit amount is annual and is divided by the number of pay periods, while Step 4(c) is an extra amount per pay period.

Example 5: biweekly withholding. A Remindax illustration using Publication 15-T (2026): an employee paid $2,250 biweekly files a 2026 Form W-4 as single, with nothing in Steps 2 through 4. On Worksheet 1A, $2,250 x 26 = $58,500, less the $8,600 line 1g amount, is $49,900. The single standard annual table gives $1,240 plus 12 percent of the excess over $19,900, or $4,840, and $4,840 / 26 = $186.15 per paycheck (the manual biweekly table gives $186.18). Paid semimonthly at $2,437.50, the annual figure is also $4,840, or $201.67 per check. Table 3 does not list a 27-period figure, so confirm how your payroll system handles a 27th payday.

Where states differ. The Department of Labor's State Payday Requirements table, last revised January 1, 2023, shows which frequencies each state allows and tells readers to consult the state labor office for official information. Its footnotes show the range: New Hampshire requires weekly or biweekly pay, with semimonthly or monthly pay only by written permission from the state labor department; Arizona requires two or more paydays a month not more than 16 days apart; Maine limits pay intervals to 16 days; and Alabama and Florida show no requirement. Two examples from official state sources follow.

Massachusetts, as an example. Massachusetts General Laws chapter 149, section 148 says every employer "shall pay weekly or bi-weekly each such employee the wages earned by him to within six days of the termination of the pay period" for employees working five or six days in a calendar week, or within seven days for those working seven days. Bona fide executive, administrative or professional employees, and certain employees salaried at a weekly rate, "may be paid bi-weekly or semi-monthly unless such employee elects at his own option to be paid monthly." As a Remindax illustration, for a five-day employee a biweekly period ending Saturday, November 7, 2026, must be paid by Friday, November 13, 2026.

Texas, as an example. Texas Labor Code 61.011 requires employees exempt from FLSA overtime to be paid "at least once a month" and all others "at least twice a month," and if wages are paid twice a month, "each pay period must consist as nearly as possible of an equal number of days." Under section 61.012, paydays must be posted in the workplace, and an employer that fails to designate paydays has paydays on the 1st and 15th of each month.

Switching to or from biweekly. Changing paydays does not change the FLSA workweek, which may be moved only if the change is intended to be permanent and is not designed to evade overtime (29 CFR 778.105). The Texas Workforce Commission says "There is no law that prescribes exactly how a change like this must be implemented," but recommends advance written notice listing the last old payday, the first new payday and the next new payday, and says a gap-bridging paycheck or wage advance makes the transition smoother.

Recordkeeping. FLSA records for non-exempt employees include when the workweek begins, hours worked each workday and workweek, total wages paid each pay period, and the "Date of payment and the pay period covered by payment" (29 CFR 516.2(a)(5), (7), (11) and (12)). Payroll records are kept at least 3 years from the last date of entry (29 CFR 516.5). On a biweekly payroll, the weekly hours behind each check show overtime was figured correctly, and the pay stub is where employees see the two weeks broken out.

Questions employers ask. Is biweekly the same as twice a month? No. Biweekly is every two weeks, 26 times in most years; semimonthly is 24 times a year (Publication 15-T (2026), Table 3). Can we pay overtime only when the two-week total passes 80 hours? No; each workweek stands alone (29 CFR 778.104). Does a 27th payday affect the exempt salary test? The test is weekly: $684, or $1,368 biweekly (29 CFR 541.600). Does federal law require weekly pay? No; the FLSA regulations say overtime need not be paid weekly (29 CFR 778.106), and state law may set the frequency.

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