Number of Hours per Pay Period

At work today, I had a few clients asking me how do you determine the number of hours for each pay period?  To  begin this analysis, let’s determine, how many hours are in a year?  An employee normally works 8 hours a day x 5 days a week is 40 hours a week x 52 weeks in a year is 2080 working hours per year.

Here is a breakdown of the number of hours per pay period:

Weekly (Paid 52 times a year) is 2080 hrs / 52 times  = 40 hours per pay period

Bi-Weekly (Paid 26 times a year) is 2080 hrs / 26 times = 80 hours per pay period

Semi-Monthly (Paid 24 times a year) is 2080 hrs/ 24 times = 86.67 hours per pay period

Monthly (Paid 12 times a year) is 2080 hrs / 12 times =  173.33 hours per pay period

In the future when an employee asks you how the number of hours are determined especially for salary employees, you may use this calculation as an explanation. 

Paycheck Calculator

Hi All,

Sorry about my absence, I just had a newborn and had been busy in the past couple of months.  It’s actually an exhausting job being a new parent and the irregular sleep that I get.  I am getting use to my 4-5 hours a sleep per day, anyway, enough about me.  I will try to write a post often as time permits.  Thank you all and continue checking back. 

At my work place, many small employers just fired their CPA’s or Payroll Service Provider and they would like to know how they can create a payroll for their employees.  You actually have a few options:

1. Continue writing a net check amount based on the previous paystubs from your CPA or Service Provider.  The downside is that there are some limits on certain tax categories such Social Security (FICA) or State Disability Insurance (SDI) and you would have to calculate it manually.

2. Use the paycheck calculator at www.paycheckcity.com.  The website has many payroll calcualators that I found useful and you can even print out a generic paystub for your employee if they requested it.  The downside to this is that it will not give the employee a Year-to-date (YTD) figure on the paystub.

3. Hire a local CPA or Payroll Service Provider immediately and have them calculate the taxes for you.  Unfortunately, many CPA and Payroll Service Providers request payroll reports from your previous service before they can set up your company on time for payroll. 

In my opinion, before you fire your CPA or Payroll Service Provider, make sure you have all the payroll records before you leave them because your number one priority is get your employees paid on time.