Biweekly and semi monthly are very similar practices yet they are worlds apart. When you delve into the difference between biweekly and semi monthly payrolls, deadlines or any other practice, you would realize just how dissimilar the two are.
Difference Between Biweekly and Semi Monthly
Biweekly means every two weeks or fortnight. That means exactly fourteen days. Semi monthly means twice a month, which could be split right down the middle for a month with thirty days resulting in two periods of fifteen days each or it could be an uneven split with fifteen and sixteen days or fourteen and seventeen days. The first major difference between biweekly and semi monthly are the number of days that fall in every period and thus how many periods exist in a year. Given there are fifty two weeks in a year, biweekly cycle will lead to twenty six pay cycles or periods and since there are twelve months in a calendar year, you would have twenty four pay cycles or periods in semi monthly systems.
Biweekly payrolls would almost always have a preset day when payments would be credited. For instance, a company may choose to make payments every other Friday. Or, the company may choose Wednesday, Thursday and even Monday. Whatever is chosen remains fixed unless the company reviews the policy and whatever day is chosen for the subsequent year or years would not be changed abruptly.
Employees getting paid biweekly know that they would receive their paychecks every two weeks on a given day. Such a practice doesn’t exist in semi monthly calculations. An employee would get paid twice a month. That would be on the fifteenth and the thirtieth. It could be on the thirteenth and the twenty seventh and then again on those dates in the subsequent month. The dates don’t always remain constant for every month because months have anywhere from twenty eight to thirty one days.
The manner in which work hours is calculated leads to another difference between biweekly and semi monthly payrolls. Typically, a full time employee would work for around 2,080 hours in a year. Given the pay cycles, biweekly payments would require an assessment of 2,080 hours divided by 26 while semi monthly payments would require an assessment of 2,080 hours divided by 24. Then, the number of works hours put in within the biweekly or semi monthly timeframe would be factored in.
Biweekly payments are always made at the same time on the same day every two weeks. Semi monthly payments can be made twice a month on any day of the second or third and fourth or fifth week, regardless of holidays and weekends.
