The Advantages of Bi-Weekly Vs Semi-Monthly Payroll Chron.com

Of course, to avoid ambiguity, one could go with semi-quad-weekly . I’m not sure if anyone has established with research that the terms used to be clear and are only recently becoming confused. So, if that is correct, then we are seeing some evolving language use at an interesting time in its development. It also applies analogously for the “semi” prefix and for the less common “tri” prefix and other numeric multiplier prefixes.

This overtime pay is calculated based on the work completed in the entire workweek. Thus, this pay period covers complete two weeks and does not split overtime amidst two pay cycles. This reduces a lot of confusion that occurs when calculating overtime hours.

Benefits of a Bi-weekly Payroll System

Because weeks are of fixed length and months are not, bi-weekly (ie. every two week) publications can’t possibly fall on the 1st and 15th of every month. This highlights the subtle difference between the bi- and semi- prefix when applied to a temporal word. Bi- simply means “two fixed periods added together”; semi means “happening twice in a fixed period”. Semi- can always mean bi- but bi- may not necessarily imply semi-.

For example, a bi-weekly pay frequency on a Thursday would mean employees get paid every other Thursday of the month. With bi-weekly payroll, employees are paid 26 paychecks a year, compared to 24 like bi-monthly receives. Deciding between biweekly vs. semimonthly payroll can be a difficult decision, especially because federal pay laws state that businesses must keep the same frequency throughout the year.

Which Industries Use Biweekly Pay?

https://www.bookstime.com/ anticipate their hard-earned money on this day with plans already about how to spend it to manage their basic needs and more. If you’re running any sort of business that employs people, an aspect that begs your attention is the pay frequency for your employees. There are two commonly used pay schedules – semi-monthly and bi-monthly. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 36.5 percent of employees are paid biweekly.

Biweekly pay and semimonthly pay can be confusing because employees generally receive two payments per month. However, there’s more to these pay periods than meets the eye. A person who gets paid biweekly gets 26 paychecks a year. If a worker is earning a known annual salary, then it all comes out the same whether it is divided by 24 and paid semimonthly or whether it is divided by 26 and paid biweekly. However, the example for bi-weekly given (“This magazine is published bi-weekly, on the 1st and 15th of the month.”) is I think incorrect.

Biweekly Payroll Benefits

A semi-annual reading of this lesson will help more than a bi-annual one. To illustrate this, we located the following definitions of words with the bi or semi prefix after researching both style books and dictionaries. Sign up (it’s free!) to see how BambooHR saves you time and money by combining multiple systems into one complete HR platform. Employees are paid on a specific day, e.g. every other Friday. Save money if your payroll provider charges you for every payroll run .

That way, employers don’t have to wait for current timesheets before they can run payroll. A biweekly payment structure is generally easier for the employee, as semi-monthly payroll periods make it trickier to predict payment day, as this will change monthly. This constant change in payment day means that payments may occur during a holiday, a Saturday, or even a Sunday. Should this be the case, most of the time, employees will automatically receive their payment on the last working day before the holiday or weekend. The payment date never changes- In the case of a semi-monthly pay schedule, the exact days on which an employee is paid never change. Knowing that the paycheck will be received on a specific day helps an employee in creating a budget and manage the household and other expenses.

Paycheck amounts

To make payroll processes and employees’ lives easier, some employers will choose to pay both their hourly and salaried employees biweekly. On the other hand, others find it easier to pay their hourly employees biweekly and their salaried employees semi-monthly. Twice each year, employees who are paid bi-weekly receive a third monthly paycheck, increasing their take home pay for the month. Even though this extra “bonus” check is expected, it helps make it easier to meet savings goals or reduce debt in those months if the employee has a personal budget. Depending on several factors, employers choose to pay their employees biweekly, weekly, monthly, and semi-monthly.

Although more semi monthly vs bi weeklychecks may be a pro to some, the drawback of the checks being smaller may be a con to others. Rachel Blakely-Gray is a writer for Patriot Software, a provider of payroll and human resources management solutions for small businesses. Time records allow the University to calculate its financial liability to employees. All hours worked and not worked must be reported on time sheets in TCP for nonexempt employees according to this law.