Biweekly vs. Semimonthly Pay: Why It Matters for Your Budget
"Paid every other week" and "paid twice a month" sound like the same thing. They're not, and the difference trips up a lot of budgets.
The four common pay schedules
| Schedule | Paychecks a year | When |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 52 | Same day every week |
| Biweekly | 26 | Every other week, same weekday |
| Semimonthly | 24 | Two set dates each month, like the 1st and 15th |
| Monthly | 12 | Once a month |
(Weekly and biweekly schedules occasionally have one extra paycheck in a year, 53 or 27, depending on how the calendar falls.)
Biweekly: 26 paychecks
Biweekly paychecks always land on the same weekday, every 14 days. Because a year is a little more than 52 weeks, most months have two paydays, and two months a year have three.
Each paycheck is the same size (if your hours are), but your monthly income isn't.
Semimonthly: 24 paychecks
Semimonthly paychecks come on fixed dates, like the 15th and the last day of the month. Every month has exactly two. When a payday falls on a weekend or holiday, it usually moves to the business day before.
Each paycheck is a little bigger than a biweekly one at the same salary, because the year is split into 24 instead of 26.
Which is better?
Neither pays you more over a year. But they budget differently:
- Semimonthly is easier for monthly bills: two paychecks every month, every time.
- Biweekly gives you two "extra" paychecks a year, in the three-paycheck months. If your budget runs on two paychecks a month, those are bonus money: great for savings, debt or yearly bills.
The budgeting mistake to avoid
If you're paid biweekly, don't figure your monthly income by doubling a paycheck. Instead:
monthly income = paycheck × 26 ÷ 12
That's about 2.17 paychecks a month. But since bills come monthly and paychecks don't, the safer approach is to budget each month on two paychecks and treat the third as extra.
Hourly workers
If your hours change, each paycheck differs anyway. A biweekly check also covers two separate workweeks, and overtime is counted per week, not per paycheck. That's worth knowing when you check a stub.
See your actual paydays
IncomeSync puts every payday for every job on a calendar, weekly, biweekly, semimonthly or monthly, along with your bills, so you can see which paycheck covers which bill and spot the three-paycheck months ahead of time.