Biweekly Pay Calculator
Use our biweekly pay calculator to calculate your income each pay period given an hourly, daily, weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, quarterly, or annual wage.
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How to Calculate Biweekly Pay
Understanding how to calculate biweekly pay is essential for both employees and employers. Biweekly pay is a common payroll schedule where employees receive their wages every two weeks.
Typically, pay is based on an hourly rate or annual salary, making it difficult to understand how much income is earned each paycheck.
You can calculate your biweekly pay earned each pay period using your hourly wage in a few easy steps.
Step One: Determine Your Hourly Wage
To calculate biweekly pay, you need to know your hourly wage. This is the amount paid for each hour of work before any taxes or deductions are withheld.
If you don’t know your hourly wage, you can usually find this on your job offer or pay stub.
Step Two: Calculate Biweekly Pay
Once you know your hourly wage, you can calculate your biweekly pay by multiplying your wage by the number of hours you work in a pay period.
The typical full-time employee schedule is 40 work hours per week, but your hours might be a bit different. To calculate biweekly pay, multiply the number of hours you work each week by 2 to find the number of hours you work each pay period.
hours per pay period = hours per week × 2
Then, multiply that by your hourly wage.
biweekly pay = hours per pay period × hourly wage
For example, let’s calculate your biweekly pay if you work 40 hours per week and earn $20 per hour.
hours per pay period = hours per week × 2 = 80
biweekly pay = 80 × $20 = $1,600
You’ll need to keep in mind that this is your gross income, or rather your income before taxes and deductions.
If you regularly work overtime calculator, then you can add that income as well to your biweekly check.
To account for overtime, multiply your hourly pay by 1.5, next multiply that by the number of overtime hours worked. Then, add that to your biweekly pay. You can also use our time and a half calculator.
Step Three: Account for Taxes and Deductions
Once you know how much you earn in a biweekly pay period, you need to account for taxes and withholdings.
Start by finding out how much money is withheld from your check for things like company health insurance or retirement plans. These are your pre-tax deductions.
Then, determine how much is withheld in taxes. You can refer to previous pay stubs to get an idea of how much is typically withheld from your check for taxes.
Otherwise, you’ll need to calculate your tax bracket and determine how much you need to pay, then divide that by 26, since there are 26 biweekly pay periods each year.
The result is an estimate of your biweekly pay after taxes and deductions.
It’s important to note that the actual amount of withholdings for taxes and benefits may differ from your calculations. The most accurate way to calculate your biweekly pay is to simply ask your employer.
Your HR team should be able to calculate your withholdings for you to get a more accurate number. You can also use our monthly income calculator to figure your monthly pay.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does biweekly mean you get paid for two weeks?
Biweekly pay means that you are paid every two weeks for the hours worked within the two week pay period you are being paid for.
The number of hours you worked during those two weeks would determine how much you are paid, or, if you are a salaried employee, you would be paid your annual salary divided by 26 on your biweekly paycheck.
How many biweekly pay periods are there in a year?
There are a total of 26 biweekly pay periods in a year. This is found by taking the total number of weeks per year, 52, and dividing it by 2.
How many hours should be on a biweekly paycheck?
The number of hours that should be on a biweekly paycheck is determined by how many hours are worked in the two week pay period. Typically, the standard hours on a biweekly paycheck are 80, but this can vary for hourly and part time employees.
How do you find your annual income from biweekly pay?
To determine your annual income from biweekly pay, you would multiply your average biweekly paycheck times 26, since there are 26 biweekly pay periods per year.