Semi-monthly pay

What It Means

Semi-monthly pay means you're paid twice a month on two set dates, for example the 15th and the last day of the month, which comes to 24 paychecks a year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because the dates are fixed, every month brings exactly two paychecks, and for a salaried worker they're the same size each time. It's easy to mix up with biweekly pay, which arrives every two weeks and adds up to 26 paychecks a year.

How It Sounds at Home

• "We get paid on the 15th and the last day of the month."
• "Rent's always covered by the first check now."
• "Is that job paid twice a month or every other week?"

The Breakdown

Worked example. A job pays $60,000 a year before taxes (a made-up salary):

What the result means. Each twice-a-month paycheck is $192.31 bigger, and every month brings the same amount, so a monthly budgetBudgetA plan for a set period, usually a month, that lists the money you expect to receive and how you'll spend or save it. See more is simply one paycheck times two. On a biweekly schedule most months are about $384.62 lighter, and the difference arrives in the two months that bring a third paycheck.

Setting up bills around it. With paydays on fixed dates, you can give each bill to the paycheck that lands before its due date, and the match stays the same every month. Biweekly paydays move around the calendar, so that match shifts from month to month.

Good to Know

Which pay schedules an employer may use is up to each state, and the U.S. Department of Labor's State Payday Requirements table lists the rules state by state. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics' February 2023 estimates, semimonthly pay was less common than biweekly pay (43.0% of private establishments) and weekly pay (27.0%), and more common than monthly pay. Moving from a biweekly job to a semi-monthly one makes each paycheck bigger but removes two paychecks a year, so recheck any bill or savings transfer timed to the old paydays.

Related Terms and Categories

• Pay frequency

  How often an employer pays you, usually weekly, every two weeks, twice a month or monthly, which sets how many paychecks you get in a year.

• Paycheck budgeting

  Planning money one paycheck at a time, so each bill is paid from the paycheck that arrives before it's due and the rest is spending money.

• Take-home pay

  The money that actually reaches you from a paycheck after taxes and other deductions are taken out, also called net pay or net income.

• Bill calendar

  A calendar that shows each bill on the day it's due, often next to your paydays, so you can see which paycheck has to cover which bill.

• Gross income

  The full amount you earn before taxes and other deductions come out. For federal taxes, it's all income you receive unless a law exempts it.

Household money and budgeting