How often are you paid? Are you happy with the schedule?

[kdonnel]

A friend's company is changing from a bi weekly pay schedule to a bi monthly pay schedule with no real explanation as to why.

My only guess is that with bi monthly there are 24 pay periods while with bi weekly there are 26 or 27 pay periods. That should result in less money paid to the payroll company used since there will be 1 to 2 fewer payroll events each year.

Anyone that works in payroll that can explain what other reason might exist for the switch?

I am paid bi weekly and like it. I have setup my budget around the idea of 2 paychecks a month so the months when the extra paycheck comes the entire check can go to a big extra like a vacation or Christmas.

 

[TAX GUY]

My wife and I are both paid bi-weekly (same pay cycle). Our son is paid bi-monthly (with the military).

I work in public accounting and we also offer payroll services to our clients. Some select different pay cycles based on cost (overall, it's not that much of a difference) or based on their cash flow (some may have recurring receipts that come in at certain times). Some don't want to be bothered with more frequent submissions of hours, reimbursements, commissions, bonuses, etc. so they select a less frequent cycle.

 

[mrodgers]

Biweekly and I'm fine with it. I would be fine with weekly.

Twice a month would be difficult. Which pay period is this overtime going to be in? How do you calculate the overtime? How does that affect overtime pay with holidays and vacation time? Am I going to lose the time and a half for the 20 extra hours I worked for the first part of the pay period because I took the week off which falls under both pay periods?

Biweekly is how I like it. Paid on Friday, Friday evening pay all the upcoming bills for the next 2 weeks, and on Monday pay the credit card bill from those bills and the previous 2 weeks of spending.

 

[Minnesota!]

I would prefer weekly, but we are biweekly. I like it fine...love the extra 2 checks a year!

 

[DoryGirl1963]

Over the years I've been paid weekly, biweekly, bimonthly & monthly - all are fine with me as long as I get paid, LOL!

 

[Karin1984]

When you asked 10 months ago the majority said they preferred every two weeks.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/how-often-do-you-prefer-to-be-paid.3864106/

 

[tzolkin]

I am paid monthly.
I do our company payroll, but we have a very small number of employees. We pay contractors biweekly because that's how often we do invoicing, so we could do employee payroll biweekly as well but everyone has so far been happy with monthly payroll.

My husband was paid monthly for the last few years and was just switched to biweekly in September. (Salaried were monthly and hourly were biweekly, but they decided to put everyone on the same schedule.) I preferred when it was monthly, but I suppose it doesn't make a huge difference.

I thought monthly payroll was rare because I hadn't heard of it much in the past, but our oldest daughter (23) is also paid monthly.

 

[kdonnel]

When you asked 10 months ago the majority said they preferred every two weeks.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/how-often-do-you-prefer-to-be-paid.3864106/

Whoops. Covid brain. At least this was triggered by a friends change in pay.

 

[lovesmurfs]

I'm paid monthly and LOVE it. I pay all of the bills the 1st of the month and budget for the rest of the month.

 

[Karin1984]

Whoops. Covid brain. At least this was triggered by a friends change in pay.

it'll be fun to see if we have a different result this time. You gave more options now.

I really wonder if it makes such a difference. Only when you have a problem paying your bills, I would understand having a preference, but if you can keep a budget and know when bills need to be paid, it shouldn't make a difference if it comes in at once or twice and at what date.

 

[amcnj]

Mine was mostly every two weeks. Early on in my career weekly was more common. It was nice in a way, as you felt rewarded at the end of each week. Of course that was with a check issued back then too.

But overall the frequency didn’t really matter to me.

 

[kdonnel]

it'll be fun to see if we have a different result this time. You gave more options now.

I really wonder if it makes such a difference. Only when you have a problem paying your bills, I would understand having a preference, but if you can keep a budget and know when bills need to be paid, it shouldn't make a difference if it comes in at once or twice and at what date.

This time was more interested in finding out why a company might change pay cadence. I got that answer right off with many suggestions as to why from @TAX GUY.

 

[tvguy]

A previous employer changed ownership and switched from bi-weekly to bi-monthly pay. But they messed it up because they kept the pay amounts from the bi-weekly system. Took a year but employees finally noticed they were being shorted two weeks pay a year since there were two fewer paychecks a year. They actually denied that was what they were doing, they got fined by the state, had to give people back pay, and switched back to a bi-weekly system.

 

[ronandannette]

I'm paid bi-monthly (15th & 30th) and my DH is paid bi-weekly (every second Thursday). Honestly, it's a big "whatever". The pay intervals make absolutely no difference to us.

 

[sam_gordon]

Biweekly and I'm fine with it. I would be fine with weekly.

Twice a month would be difficult. Which pay period is this overtime going to be in? How do you calculate the overtime? How does that affect overtime pay with holidays and vacation time? Am I going to lose the time and a half for the 20 extra hours I worked for the first part of the pay period because I took the week off which falls under both pay periods?

Biweekly is how I like it. Paid on Friday, Friday evening pay all the upcoming bills for the next 2 weeks, and on Monday pay the credit card bill from those bills and the previous 2 weeks of spending.

Here you go... https://smallbusiness.chron.com/calculate-ot-semimonthly-payroll-23335.html

Pretty sure OT needs to be paid based on 40 hour weeks. So if you work 60 hours in week 1, 0 in week 2 (because of vacation), you would still get paid 20 hours OT.

 

[easyas123]

We pay biweekly, although for a long time we were weekly. No issues or complaints from employees.

 

[1420Elexismc]

I am paid bi-monthly (have been for 14 years) I don't love it-but I'm used to it. My husband was weekly for years but went to bi-weekly when he switched jobs years ago.

 

[barkley]

i'm retired so i'm paid monthly albeit on 2 different days (pension vs. social security). i like it. i never cared for bi-weekly. i much preferred 2 designated dates in a given month.

 

[soccerdad72]

I'm bi-weekly, which is fine. Doesn't really matter to me.

Wife's pay is strange - as a partner in a Big 4 firm, she doesn't get a paycheck, per se, but a distribution into her partner equity account once a month (at something like 80% of her base pay). Then at the end of the year once they've done all their collections for the year, she'll get a distribution to make up the difference in that 80% up to the amount of revenue they've collected (usually anywhere from 95% to 105%). That's a good month, I will say that.

 

[Robber Baron]

I'm retired but the last 20 years, in sales, we salespeople got paid bimonthly. 1/2 of your draw on the 15th and the 30th, with your last months commission also being paid on the 15th.

I didn't care if we got paid weekly, monthly, or quarterly, as long as I got the money.