Biweekly pay period · Kangaroo Clock glossary

A biweekly pay period is a 14-day stretch (two work weeks) used as the unit for payroll processing. Workers paid biweekly receive 26 paychecks per year. Most US private-sector employers use this schedule.

A biweekly pay period is the most common payroll schedule in the United States, around 43% of US private-sector workers are paid this way per recent BLS data. The pay period is exactly 14 calendar days; pay days fall every other week on the same day of the week.

Biweekly differs from semimonthly (twice a month, 24 paychecks per year), most people use the terms interchangeably but they aren't the same. Biweekly has two months per year where workers receive three paychecks instead of two, which budgeting tools need to handle correctly.

For time-tracking purposes, biweekly means the export the bookkeeper pulls covers exactly 14 days, usually Sunday-through-Saturday twice. Kangaroo Clock's reports page lets you set arbitrary date ranges, so biweekly periods are a one-click range pick.