Biweekly paydays for the year, the three-paycheck months, and whether there are 27
Estimates only, not financial advice. What you type stays on your device. Checked against sources on 6 Oct 2026.Paid every other Friday from 9 January 2026, you get 26 paychecks in 2026, with three in May and three in October; the Christmas payday is paid on Thursday 24 December. Start the same schedule a week earlier, on 2 January, and the 1 January 2027 payday is paid on 31 December, so 2026 has 27 paychecks.
Rates and rules read from the sources listed on this page (the earliest on 6 Oct 2026); they may have changed since.
Biweekly is already chosen; enter the date of any payday from a recent payslip.
Set the year you want to plan for.
Read the months marked with three paychecks under the headline.
Check the note for a 27-paycheck year and how your salary is split.
Enter any payday from your payslip to see your own year.
The Pay Period Calendar lists every payday in a year for a weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly or monthly payroll, moves each one that lands on a weekend or a US holiday to the business day before or after, and counts them. It runs in your browser and needs only one payday from a payslip.
Three-paycheck months. Fifty-two weeks make 26 biweekly paydays, two a month with two months left over, so two months a year have three paychecks. Weekly pay gives four months with five. Many people budget on two (or four) checks and treat the extra ones as savings; the calendar names those months.
26 or 27, 52 or 53. A year is 52 weeks and one day, two in a leap year, so the paydays drift a day or two each year. When a biweekly payday falls on 1 January (or 2 January in a leap year) the year holds 27; a weekly payroll gets a 53rd payday every five or six years. The count here is by the date the money is paid, after any move, because that is the year it appears on your W-2. A 1 January payday paid on 31 December belongs to the old year.
The rest of the article, and all 6 questions about Pay Period Calendar, are on the Pay Period Calendar page.
The answer depends on your first payday. Paid biweekly on Fridays from 9 January 2026, the three-paycheck months are May and October. Paid from Friday 2 January 2026, they are January, July and December, because 1 January 2027 is a holiday paid on 31 December. Enter your own payday to see your months.
About once every eleven years on a biweekly payroll. A year is 52 weeks and one day, two in a leap year, so paydays move a day or two later each year until one lands on 1 January, or 2 January in a leap year, and that year holds 27. Weekly payrolls get 53 paydays every five or six years.
Biweekly pay comes every other week, on the same weekday, 26 times in most years. Semi-monthly pay comes twice a month on set dates, such as the 15th and the last day, giving 24 scheduled paydays a year. Biweekly checks are smaller but there are two more of them, and the weekday stays the same.
Only if your employer pays the salary as annual pay divided by 26. Then each check is the same and the year pays one extra, about 3.8% more. Employers that divide the salary by the number of paydays in the year pay the same annual total in 27 slightly smaller checks.
Rates and rules change; check the source before you rely on a figure.
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