Payroll calendar 2027: biweekly, semimonthly and monthly pay dates

This payroll calendar 2027 gives you every pay date for the four common schedules, ready to paste into a spreadsheet or your payroll system. Each calendar lists the pay period, the scheduled payday and the actual pay date after moving any payday that lands on a Saturday, Sunday or a day the Federal Reserve Banks are closed, because direct deposit settles only on banking days. The biweekly and weekly calendars assume Friday paydays and a Sunday to Saturday workweek, the most common setup for hourly teams; if you pay on another weekday, shift every date by the same number of days. Below the calendars: the 27-payday year, state pay frequency rules, a worked example and the 2027 tax filing dates.

Biweekly pay schedule 2027: 27 or 26 paydays

A biweekly pay schedule 2027 comes in two versions, and which one you are on depends on your Fridays in late 2026. If Friday, December 18, 2026 is a payday, your next payday is Friday, January 1, 2027 and you are on the 27-payday track. If Friday, December 25, 2026 is a payday (usually paid on Thursday, December 24 because of Christmas), your first 2027 payday is January 8 and you have 26. The pay periods below end on the Saturday six days before payday, so each check covers two full workweeks and overtime is settled on the same check. Read how many pay periods in a year for the full explanation of why Friday payers get 27 this year.

Track A: 27 paydays, first payday January 1, 2027

The only move on this track is the first one. January 1 is a Federal Reserve holiday, so the check is paid Thursday, December 31, 2026. That puts those wages on 2026 W-2s and leaves 26 pay dates inside calendar 2027, which matters for salaried staff and per-check deductions (see the 27-payday problem). Three months have three scheduled paydays: January, July and December (if you pay the January 1 check on December 31, 2026, December 2026 gets that third check instead).

Track B: 26 paydays, first payday January 8, 2027

No 2027 payday on this track falls on a weekend or a bank holiday, so every check is paid on the scheduled Friday. The last payday is December 24, 2027 (Reserve Banks are open that day because Christmas is a Saturday) and the next one is January 7, 2028. April and October have three paydays.

Semi monthly payroll calendar 2027: 15th and last day

A semi monthly payroll calendar 2027 always has 24 paydays, but eight of them land on a weekend or a Federal Reserve holiday this year, so the actual pay date moves earlier: January 31, February 15 (Washington's Birthday), February 28, May 15, May 31 (Memorial Day), July 31, August 15 and October 31. Everything else pays on the date, including Friday, December 31, 2027, when Reserve Banks are open. Each period covers the 1st to the 15th or the 16th to month end, so periods run from 13 to 16 days and most split a workweek; our guide to how to calculate overtime covers paying the split week.

If you pay on the 1st and 15th instead, six dates move in 2027: January 1 is paid Thursday, December 31, 2026; February 15 is paid Friday, February 12; May 1 is paid Friday, April 30; May 15 is paid Friday, May 14; August 1 is paid Friday, July 30; and August 15 is paid Friday, August 13.

Monthly payroll calendar 2027

Monthly pay has 12 paydays on the last day of each month. Four of them move in 2027: January, February and October end on a Sunday and May ends on Memorial Day. Check your state before choosing monthly pay; many states require most employees to be paid at least twice a month, and the state rules below show who allows monthly.

Weekly payroll calendar 2027: 53 Friday paydays

2027 has 53 Fridays, from January 1 to December 31, so an employer paying every Friday runs 53 payrolls this year instead of 52. Only one Friday is a bank holiday: January 1, paid Thursday, December 31, 2026. Friday, June 18 and Friday, December 24 are observed federal holidays for government workers, but Federal Reserve Banks are open and direct deposits settle normally. The copyable list pairs each Friday payday with the Sunday to Saturday workweek it pays for.

2027 bank holidays that move paydays

Direct deposit runs through the ACH network, which settles only on days the Federal Reserve Banks are open. The Federal Reserve's 2027 holiday schedule lists nine closures. Juneteenth (Saturday, June 19) and Christmas (Saturday, December 25) are not among them, because the Fed does not move a Saturday holiday to Friday; Independence Day (Sunday, July 4) is observed Monday, July 5, and the Fed is closed. The full list of observed dates for employers is in our federal holidays 2027 guide.

When a payday lands on one of these days or on a weekend, pay on the previous banking day. Moving later risks a late-wage claim under state payday laws, and employees budget around the published date. Submit the payroll file at least two banking days before the pay date; a Monday holiday means the file for a Friday payday is due Wednesday, and a Thursday holiday pushes a Friday payday's file to Tuesday. Our guide on how long direct deposit takes walks through the file, settlement and posting steps and what time money lands.

27 pay periods 2027: the problem and two ways to handle it

The phrase "27 pay periods 2027" worries payroll managers for one reason: salaried pay was budgeted as an annual figure divided by 26. Hourly employees are simple, because 27 paydays means 27 periods of hours and total pay follows the hours. For salaried staff on the 27-payday track you have two main choices, and both need a decision before the first affected check.

1. Pay the regular biweekly amount 27 times. Nothing changes on the pay stub. A $60,000 salary keeps paying $2,307.69 every two weeks and the employee receives $62,307.69 in the calendar year. The cost is one extra period of salaried payroll, about 3.85% (1 ÷ 26) of annual salaried wages, plus the employer Social Security, Medicare and unemployment taxes on it and any 401(k) match calculated per check. This is the simplest option for morale and for any offer letter that states pay as a biweekly amount.
2. Divide the annual salary by 27. Each check shrinks by about 3.7% (1 ÷ 27) and the employee receives the same annual salary: $2,222.22 per check instead of $2,307.69, a difference of $85.47 per payday. Before you choose this route, check that the smaller check still meets the salary basis test for exempt employees ($684 per week under the federal rule now in effect, higher in several states), read the offer letters (a promise of "$2,307.69 biweekly" cannot be cut without agreement), and give written notice before the first smaller check; New York and California require advance written notice of pay changes.

Decide separately how the extra check handles fixed-dollar deductions. A $2,600 annual benefit premium is $100 per check across 26 paydays; in a 27-period year you can skip it on the 27th check or recalculate to $96.30 across all 27. Percentage-based withholding simply follows the wages, though high earners can reach the Social Security wage base ($192,300 for 2027) a check earlier.

One more wrinkle for Track A employers: because January 1, 2027 is paid on December 31, 2026, calendar 2027 actually holds 26 pay dates and calendar 2026 holds 27. Wages count for tax purposes in the year they are paid, so the 27th check belongs to 2026 W-2s. If you instead pay on Monday, January 4, 2027, the extra check lands in 2027. Either is fine; pick one, tell employees in writing, and pull 2026 year-end totals after the final run.

State pay frequency rules to check before you set the calendar

Federal law does not set a pay frequency. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that wages be paid on the regular payday for the period, but the minimum frequency comes from state law. The US Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division publishes a state payday requirements table (last revised January 1, 2023) that summarizes each state, with footnotes for the exceptions. A few examples, which you should confirm with the state agency before you commit to a schedule:

• Texas: under the Texas Payday Law, employees who are exempt from FLSA overtime must be paid at least monthly; other employees at least twice a month. If the employer does not designate paydays, they default to the 1st and 15th.
• California: most wages must be paid at least twice during each calendar month on regular paydays set in advance. Wages earned from the 1st to the 15th are due by the 26th, and wages earned from the 16th to month end by the 10th of the next month; weekly and biweekly payrolls must pay within seven calendar days of the period end.
• New York: manual workers are generally paid weekly, within seven days of the end of the week, unless the employer has approval from the New York State Department of Labor to pay semimonthly. Clerical and other workers must be paid at least twice a month.
• Arizona: two or more paydays a month, not more than 16 days apart.
• Massachusetts: hourly employees must be paid weekly or biweekly; salaried employees may be paid semimonthly, or monthly if they agree.
• Connecticut: weekly, with longer intervals up to monthly allowed only with the labor commissioner's approval.
• Illinois, Ohio, Georgia: at least semimonthly, with Illinois allowing monthly pay for executive, administrative and professional staff.
• Washington and Colorado: monthly is the minimum.
• Alabama, Florida, South Carolina: listed with no state pay frequency requirement.

Many states also require that paydays be regular and posted, and set a maximum lag between the end of the period and the payday. The six-day lag in the biweekly calendars above fits most states, but check yours. You can always pay more often than the minimum, never less. The setup steps, from the EIN to the first pay run, are in how to process payroll.

Example: Northfield Coffee's calendar from November 2026 into 2027

Northfield Coffee in Austin, Texas pays its team every other Friday with a Sunday to Saturday workweek, six days after the period closes. The Nov 1 to 14 period is paid Friday, November 20; Nov 15 to 28 is paid December 4. Continue that rhythm and the shop lands on Track A: December 18, then January 1, 2027. Here is how the next six paydays fall, with the day manager Marcus must submit the payroll file so direct deposit settles on time.

Two things in that table deserve a note. The December 13 to 26 period includes Christmas Day, which Northfield closes and pays as a paid holiday to full-time staff; those holiday hours are paid but are not hours worked, so they do not count toward overtime (see holiday pay rules). And the file for the December 31 pay date is due Tuesday, December 29, two banking days earlier, which gives Marcus Sunday and Monday to fix missed punches and approve timesheets. Because the team is hourly, the Dec 31 move changes nobody's pay. It does put the check on 2026 W-2s, so Northfield's 2026 totals include 27 paydays and its 2027 calendar runs January 15 through December 31, 26 pay dates. Dana Brooks, hired November 2, got her first check on November 20 with everyone else, and from here on every pay stub shows the period it covers so nobody has to guess which check a shift lands on.

2027 payroll tax deadlines

The pay calendar drives a second calendar: federal deposits and filings. These dates come from the IRS employment tax due dates page, the Form 941 instructions and the 2026 General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3, with the weekend and holiday rule applied (a due date on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday moves to the next business day). Deposit dates assume you are a monthly depositor, which is where new employers start; semiweekly depositors pay by the following Wednesday or Friday depending on the payday. The IRS usually posts Publication 509 for the coming year in December, so confirm the 2027 edition once it is out, and read our W-2 deadline guide for the furnishing rules and penalties.

Texas, where Northfield operates, has no state income tax and no state W-2 filing, but it does have quarterly wage reports and state unemployment tax due to the Texas Workforce Commission. Most states with an income tax want withholding deposits and an annual reconciliation on their own schedule. Our guide to employer payroll taxes lists each federal tax and rate, and 1099 vs W-2 explains who gets which form by February 1.

Print or copy the 2027 payroll calendar

Each calendar above has a Copy text button. The copied text is tab separated, so when you paste it into Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers each column lands in its own cell and the dates (MM/DD/YYYY) are recognized as dates, ready for sorting, reminders or a mail merge into the handbook. To print, use your browser's print command (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P); the tables print one row per payday and the navigation stays out of the way. If you pay on a weekday other than Friday, paste the biweekly or weekly calendar into a sheet and add or subtract the same number of days from every date, then recheck the holiday list, because Monday payers hit six of the nine 2027 closures and Friday payers hit one.

Post the final calendar where employees will see it: the break room, the handbook and the pay stub. A payroll calendar nobody can find produces the same questions every two weeks. In Workzenly, the pay schedule sits in the employee app next to each pay stub, and the time clock closes each period on the Saturday the calendar says it should.

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