What is a semi-monthly pay period?

Semi-monthly pay period definition and meaning

A semi-monthly pay period occurs when employees receive two paychecks each month, usually the 1st and fifteenth of the month, or the fifteenth and the final day of the month.

What does semi-monthly mean?

Semi-monthly is a pay schedule in which employees receive their wages or salary twice per month. This results in 24 paychecks per year. In most cases, employers who follow a semi-monthly schedule pay their employees on the 1st and 15th of each month or the 15th and last day of each month.

More about semi-monthly pay periods

A semi-monthly payroll schedule can also be referred to as “bi-monthly.” While technically, bi-monthly does mean every two months, in payroll terms, it means two paydays per month, for a total of 24 paychecks per year.

How many hours in a semi-monthly pay period?

Semi-monthly employees who work full-time will receive 86.67 hours of pay in every paycheck. When employers design the pay schedule, they set up these default hours. However, these hours are not set in stone and may change to account for fluctuations in employee status and hours worked.

Is it better for an employee to get paid monthly or biweekly for taxes?

Whether an employee gets paid monthly or biweekly won’t affect their taxes. This is because tax obligations are based on annual income, not payroll frequency. An employee’s tax liability will remain the same, regardless of if they’re paid monthly or biweekly. A payroll software can adjust the amount of taxes to withhold from each paycheck to account for the number of pay periods in the year.

What does semi-monthly mean for health insurance?

A semi-monthly pay period means that an employee’s health insurance premiums will be split evenly over the regularly scheduled paychecks they receive twice per month. In most cases, these medical, dental, and/or vision deductions will be taken out on the 1st and 15th of every month or the 15th and last day of every month.

For example, the first half of an employee’s health insurance premiums may be deducted on September 1st and the second half will be deducted from their September 15th paycheck.

What is the difference between bi-weekly and bi-monthly?

A bi-weekly payroll schedule is when employees receive their paychecks on the same day every other week while a bi-monthly schedule is when employees get paid twice per month, usually on the 1st and 15th or the 15th and the last day of the month. Under a bi-weekly structure, there are 26 pay periods per year. With a bi-monthly schedule, however, employees receive 24 annual paychecks.