<p>You mean 26 pay dates per year, right?</p>

<p>Then no, because a year is 365 days long and a 26 biweeks are $26 \cdot 14 = 364$ days long. Therefore any year that starts with a Friday (which is usually a pay date) should have 27 pay dates. However if Jan 1 is a holiday (depends on where you live), the paydate is probably moved to Dec 31 so the preceding year would have 27 pay dates.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-02T18:58:32.450Z
Our pay dates are on Tuesdays.
leeand00
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-02T19:13:20.393Z
Jan 1st is a holiday.   But...12/20/2016 is the last paydate.
leeand00
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-02T20:11:23.597Z
The question and answer were about whether it is possible to have more than 26 in any year. As you can see from the answer it is unlikely for any given year to have more than 26 pay dates, but to know for sure you do have to check the calendar.
Giskard
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-02T20:12:24.817Z
2010 was one of those years.
leeand00
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-02T18:55:38.297Z
2016-03-02T18:55:38.297Z
Giskard
<p>In a bi-weekly payroll cycle, there are only ever 26 pay dates, correct?  It never jumps to 27 or falls to 25?  </p>

<p>I'm asking this question in a leap year, and I know that calculating the first pay date has to do with selecting a day of the week to run payroll on, and then selecting the first occurrence of that day in the year.</p>

<accounting>
In a bi-weekly payroll cycle, there are only ever 26 pay dates, correct?
leeand00
# In a bi-weekly payroll cycle, there are only ever 26 pay dates, correct?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-03-02)

In a bi-weekly payroll cycle, there are only ever 26 pay dates, correct? It never jumps to 27 or falls to 25?

I'm asking this question in a leap year, and I know that calculating the first pay date has to do with selecting a day of the week to run payroll on, and then selecting the first occurrence of that day in the year.

**Tags:** accounting


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-03-02. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

You mean 26 pay dates per year, right?

Then no, because a year is 365 days long and a 26 biweeks are $26 \cdot 14 = 364$ days long. Therefore any year that starts with a Friday (which is usually a pay date) should have 27 pay dates. However if Jan 1 is a holiday (depends on where you live), the paydate is probably moved to Dec 31 so the preceding year would have 27 pay dates.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Our pay dates are on Tuesdays.  
> **username_0**: Jan 1st is a holiday.   But...12/20/2016 is the last paydate.  
> **username_1**: The question and answer were about whether it is possible to have more than 26 in any year. As you can see from the answer it is unlikely for any given year to have more than 26 pay dates, but to know for sure you do have to check the calendar.  
> **username_0**: 2010 was one of those years.  

---

