What is semi-monthly vs. bi-weekly?

[accounting byte]

Payroll schedules are semi-monthly and bi-weekly. For employees to be paid semi-monthly, they are paid on stated fixed days: the 1st and 15th, and this is semi yearly. It refers to an employee being paid bi-weekly, twice a month, allowed it is, on the same day (every other Friday). At that, semi-monthly provides 24 pay periods a year while bi-weekly yields 26. The semi monthly offers preset dates but the days of the pay period may differ. This simplifies calculation of hourly wage and overtime tracking to bi weekly if hourly wage rate isn’t changed significantly from pay to pay.

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