Semi-Monthly Pay: Definition, 24 vs 26 Periods, Overtime Rules
Semi-monthly pay is a schedule of two paydays a month on fixed dates, giving 24 pay periods a year, in contrast to biweekly pay every other week with 26 periods; the periods do not align with the seven-day workweek, which complicates overtime for hourly staff.
Semi-monthly pay means employees are paid twice a month on fixed calendar dates, most often the 15th and the last day of the month, or the 1st and the 16th. That produces exactly 24 paychecks a year. It is often confused with biweekly pay, which is every other week on the same weekday and produces 26 paychecks. The two schedules pay the same annual salary, but the size of each check, the number of days in each period, and the way overtime lines up with the pay period are all different, and a handful of states require one frequency or the other.
What Is Semi-Monthly Pay?
The schedule is built on the calendar rather than the week. Each month is split in two, and each half is a pay period. Because months have 28 to 31 days, the periods run from 13 days (the second half of February) to 16 days (the second half of a 31-day month). A salaried employee receives the same amount each period regardless of its length, which is why salaried workforces favor the schedule: the annual salary divided by 24 is a fixed, predictable number, and it lines up neatly with monthly benefit deductions and monthly accounting.
For hourly employees the schedule is less convenient. Their pay depends on hours worked in the period, the period length varies, and the seven-day workweek that overtime is measured in will start in one pay period and end in the next roughly half the time.
Semi-Monthly vs Biweekly: The Arithmetic
Take a salaried team lead at $60,000 a year.
| Semi-monthly | Biweekly | |
|---|---|---|
| Periods per year | 24 | 26 |
| Gross per check | $60,000 ÷ 24 = $2,500.00 | $60,000 ÷ 26 = $2,307.69 |
| Paydays in a typical month | 2 | 2, but 3 in two months of the year |
| Days in a period | 13 to 16 | Always 14 |
| Annual total | $60,000 | $60,000 |
The semi-monthly check is larger because there are fewer of them; the annual figure is identical. Employees who move from a biweekly employer to a semi-monthly one sometimes read the larger check as a raise, and employees who move the other way sometimes read the smaller check as a cut. Neither is true, though the biweekly schedule does deliver two "extra" checks a year in the months with three paydays, which the three paycheck months guide explains.
The hourly conversion under 29 CFR 778.113 is the same in both cases: multiply the semi-monthly salary by 24 (or the biweekly salary by 26) and divide by 52 to get the weekly salary, then divide by the hours the salary covers. The regulation's example: "a regular monthly salary of $1,560, or a regular semimonthly salary of $780 for 40 hours a week, is thus found to be $9 per hour."
Overtime on a Semi-Monthly Schedule
The Fair Labor Standards Act measures overtime by the workweek, a fixed and recurring period of seven consecutive 24-hour days, and it does not care about pay periods. A semi-monthly pay period of 15 or 16 days contains two full workweeks and parts of one or two others. The rule for the partial weeks is that overtime is determined once the workweek is complete and paid on the payday for the period in which the workweek ends, not split across two checks.
A worked example
A company's workweek runs Sunday through Saturday and its pay periods are the 1st to the 15th and the 16th to the end of the month. In September 2026, the 15th is a Tuesday. An hourly agent at $20.00 works 44 hours in the workweek of Sunday, September 13 to Saturday, September 19: 20 of those hours on the 13th, 14th, and 15th, and 24 on the 16th to 19th.
- First period (through the 15th): the workweek is not complete, so payroll pays the 20 hours at straight time, $400.00, and cannot yet know whether overtime is owed.
- Second period (from the 16th): the workweek closes on the 19th with 44 hours. The 24 hours worked in this period are paid, and the 4 overtime hours are paid at 1.5 times, since they are the last hours of the week. The overtime premium on 4 hours is 4 × $20.00 × 0.5 = $40.00.
- The agent's total for the week is 44 × $20.00 + $40.00 = $920.00, split $400.00 on the first payday and $520.00 on the second.
Payroll systems handle this automatically once the workweek is defined, but a manual process that computes overtime by pay period rather than workweek will get it wrong: in the example above, a period-based calculation would see 20 hours in one period and 24 in the next and pay no overtime at all. The overtime pay laws guide covers the workweek rule in detail.
State Payday Requirements
Federal law does not set a pay frequency; it requires only that wages be paid promptly on the regular payday. States do set minimums. The Department of Labor's state payday table lists the states that require at least semi-monthly pay for most employees, among them Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming, plus the District of Columbia. Several of those permit monthly pay for exempt employees: the table's Texas footnote says that "each employee who is exempt from the overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) must be paid at least once a month; others must be paid at least twice a month." Arizona requires paydays "two or more days in a month, not more than 16 days apart." California requires that wages "be paid at least twice during each calendar month on the days designated in advance as regular paydays," with occupation-specific exceptions. New Hampshire requires weekly or biweekly pay unless the state labor department permits otherwise in writing. The table changes as states amend their laws, so check it before setting a schedule for a new state.
Pay frequency is a state rule
Some states require semi-monthly or more frequent pay for hourly employees, several allow monthly pay only for exempt staff, and a few require weekly or biweekly pay. Confirm the rule with your state labor agency before choosing or changing a schedule, and give employees written notice of any change.
Semi-Monthly vs Biweekly vs Monthly
| Semi-monthly | Biweekly | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Periods per year | 24 | 26 | 12 |
| Best for | Salaried staff, monthly benefit deductions | Hourly staff, overtime alignment | Exempt staff where permitted |
| Overtime alignment | Poor; workweeks split across periods | Good; every period is two full workweeks | Poor |
| Allowed for hourly staff | In most states | In all states | In a minority of states |
| Payroll runs per year | 24 | 26 | 12 |
Semi-Monthly Pay in Contact Centers and Remote Teams
Contact centers with a mix of salaried supervisors and hourly agents sometimes run two schedules: semi-monthly for salaried staff and biweekly for hourly staff, so that agent overtime aligns with the pay period. Others keep one semi-monthly schedule for everyone and rely on the payroll system to close each workweek correctly across the period boundary. The second approach works, but it means an agent's overtime for a week that straddles the 15th appears on the later check, which generates questions if it is not explained.
Remote and international teams add a second layer. Semi-monthly pay is the norm in the Philippines, where the 15th and 30th are standard paydays and the 13th-month payment is calculated on basic salary, and in much of Latin America. A BPO paying U.S. staff biweekly and Manila staff semi-monthly is running two calendars, two sets of period lengths, and two overtime regimes, and the prorated salary arithmetic for a mid-period start differs between them.
How to Track Hours Across Pay Periods
Semi-monthly overtime only works when hours are recorded by workweek, independent of the pay period. HiveDesk records hours from its desktop, mobile, and browser apps and totals them by day and by workweek, so the week of September 13 to 19 shows 44 hours as one figure even though it spans two pay periods. Timesheets can also be reported for any date range, which gives payroll the hours for the 1st to the 15th and the 16th to the 30th separately when it needs them. All of this is included in the single $5/user/month plan with a 14-day free trial.
Workweek Totals That Ignore the Pay Period
HiveDesk totals hours by workweek and reports them for any date range, so overtime is right whether the week ends on the 14th or the 16th. $5/user/month, 14-day free trial.
Related Terms
- Biweekly pay: the 26-period alternative and how to choose between them
- Three paycheck months: the biweekly quirk semi-monthly schedules do not have
- Workweek: the fixed seven-day period overtime is measured in
- Prorated salary: calculating a partial first or last period
- Salaried non-exempt: converting a semi-monthly salary to a regular rate
- Gross pay: what each semi-monthly check shows before deductions
Frequently Asked Questions
What does semi-monthly pay mean? Employees are paid twice a month on fixed dates, typically the 15th and the last day, for a total of 24 paychecks a year.
Is semi-monthly the same as biweekly? No. Semi-monthly is twice a month on fixed dates (24 checks). Biweekly is every other week on the same weekday (26 checks). The annual total is the same; the check size and period length differ.
How many pay periods are in a semi-monthly schedule? Twenty-four. Each month has two, so a $48,000 salary pays $2,000 per period.
How is overtime handled with semi-monthly pay? Overtime is still measured by the seven-day workweek. When a workweek spans two pay periods, the hours in the first period are paid at straight time and the overtime is paid on the payday for the period in which the workweek ends.
Which states require semi-monthly pay? The Department of Labor's payday table lists about two dozen states plus the District of Columbia that require at least semi-monthly pay for most employees, several of which allow monthly pay for exempt employees. Check the table for the current list and footnotes.
Why is my semi-monthly paycheck bigger than my old biweekly one? Because there are 24 checks instead of 26. The annual salary is divided into fewer, larger pieces; the total for the year is unchanged.
Browse more workforce management terms in the glossary.