How Many Times Per Month Am I required To Pay My Employees (Weekly? Bi-Monthly)

How often an employer pay is a business decision, which is made by a company, and this decision depends on many factors like federal and state laws, thecost of typing payroll and types of employees. Federal state laws are that payment must be made to employees on theregular basis that is at regular intervals. Not like that you pay your employees once a month and then weekly or next month. The number of payperiods i.e. the frequency of paying employees is not regulated by IRS. In some states, the government applies minimum pay frequencies. Some states also require the employers to pay to the terminated employees within a limit of time.

There are some options for the employers to pay the employees. The options are mentioned below:

• Weekly
• Bi-Weekly
• Semi-Monthly
• Monthly

Weekly

Many companies pay their employees on the same day of the week, and some of the companies pay on the Friday of the week that has passed. This is known as weekly payment

Bi-Weekly

It is a different mode that some companies adopt. In this mode, the employer pays its employees after an interval of about two weeks. The payments are made to the employees i.e. on other week or after two weeks.

Semi-Monthly:

It is a mode in which the company pays to its employees twice a month. Usually, the paydays are the 15th or the 30th of a month.

Monthly:

In this mode, the employer pays the employees at the end of the month. The payment day is mostly a day or two days before the last day of a month in which the employee has worked.

How many times does each frequency mean by these methods?

• The employees who are paid weekly receive 52 paychecks a year.
• The employees who are paid Bi-Weekly receive 26 paychecks a year.
• The employees being paid on Semi-Monthly basis receive 24 checks per year.
• The employees being paid monthly receive 12 checks per year.

Example:

A salaried employee who has an annual pay of $48,000 can be paid

• $4,000 a month
• $2,000 semi-monthly (twice a month)
• $1,866 every two weeks. Since this amount has been rounded up, the last paycheck of the year may be a bit different.

Costs Associated with The Pay Roll Method:

There are costs associated with payroll, which include

• Printing the checks for employees. They are the special checks, which include detailed pay information
• Direct Deposit costs, whichare charged to employers by banks upon depositing amounts into employees accounts.
• The time spent by the employee or the bookkeepers to calculate all gross pays, deductions, withholdings and the net pays.
• If payroll-processing service is used, then there would be cost associated with each check being processed.

There is a higher cost for processing paychecks more frequently. Therefore, if paychecks are processedweekly, then it would cost more than being processed bi-weekly. Also, the checks processed by monthly would cost more than the other methods of payroll.

Keeping in view the cost of payroll, IRS regulations and employee's needs, the employer must decide upon the appropriate payroll method.

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