Biweekly Pay Calculator: Understand Your Earnings
Understanding your paycheck is crucial for managing your personal finances. If you're paid biweekly, it means you receive a paycheck every two weeks. This payment schedule is very common in the United States, resulting in 26 paychecks over the course of a year.
What is Biweekly Pay?
Biweekly pay refers to a payment schedule where employees are paid once every two weeks. Unlike semimonthly pay (which is twice a month, often on fixed dates like the 15th and 30th), biweekly pay always results in 26 paychecks per year. This consistency can make budgeting easier for many individuals.
How to Calculate Biweekly Pay
Calculating your biweekly pay involves a few steps, depending on whether you're paid an annual salary or an hourly wage, and if you have any overtime or deductions.
- For Salaried Employees: Your annual salary is simply divided by 26 (the number of biweekly periods in a year).
- For Hourly Employees: Your hourly rate is multiplied by the number of hours you work in a week, and then that weekly total is multiplied by two (for two weeks in a biweekly period).
- Overtime: If you work overtime, your overtime hours are multiplied by your overtime rate and added to your regular gross pay.
- Deductions: From your total gross pay, any pre-tax or post-tax deductions (like health insurance premiums, 401k contributions, or union dues) are subtracted to arrive at your net pay.
Using the Biweekly Pay Calculator
Our calculator simplifies this process. You can input your annual salary, or your hourly rate and weekly hours. Optionally, add any overtime details and biweekly deductions to get a comprehensive view of your gross and net biweekly earnings.
Example Scenarios
Let's look at a few examples to illustrate how the calculator works:
- Salaried Employee:
- Annual Salary: $65,000
- Biweekly Deductions: $250
- Calculation: $65,000 / 26 = $2,500 (Gross). $2,500 – $250 = $2,250 (Net).
- Hourly Employee with Overtime:
- Hourly Rate: $20
- Hours Worked Per Week: 40
- Overtime Hourly Rate: $30 (1.5x regular)
- Overtime Hours Per Biweekly Period: 10
- Biweekly Deductions: $150
- Calculation:
- Regular Gross: $20 * 40 hours/week * 2 weeks = $1,600
- Overtime Gross: $30 * 10 hours = $300
- Total Gross: $1,600 + $300 = $1,900
- Net Pay: $1,900 – $150 = $1,750
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function calculateBiweeklyPay() {
var annualSalary = parseFloat(document.getElementById("annualSalary").value);
var hourlyRate = parseFloat(document.getElementById("hourlyRate").value);
var hoursPerWeek = parseFloat(document.getElementById("hoursPerWeek").value);
var overtimeHourlyRate = parseFloat(document.getElementById("overtimeHourlyRate").value);
var overtimeHoursBiweekly = parseFloat(document.getElementById("overtimeHoursBiweekly").value);
var biweeklyDeductions = parseFloat(document.getElementById("biweeklyDeductions").value);
var biweeklyGrossPayRegular = 0;
var biweeklyOvertimePay = 0;
var totalBiweeklyGrossPay = 0;
var totalBiweeklyNetPay = 0;
var resultDiv = document.getElementById("biweeklyPayResult");
resultDiv.innerHTML = ""; // Clear previous results
// Handle default values for optional inputs
if (isNaN(overtimeHourlyRate)) {
overtimeHourlyRate = 0;
}
if (isNaN(overtimeHoursBiweekly)) {
overtimeHoursBiweekly = 0;
}
if (isNaN(biweeklyDeductions)) {
biweeklyDeductions = 0;
}
if (!isNaN(annualSalary) && annualSalary > 0) {
// Calculate based on annual salary
biweeklyGrossPayRegular = annualSalary / 26;
totalBiweeklyGrossPay = biweeklyGrossPayRegular; // For salaried, this is the total gross
} else if (!isNaN(hourlyRate) && hourlyRate > 0 && !isNaN(hoursPerWeek) && hoursPerWeek > 0) {
// Calculate based on hourly rate
var regularBiweeklyHours = hoursPerWeek * 2;
biweeklyGrossPayRegular = hourlyRate * regularBiweeklyHours;
if (overtimeHourlyRate > 0 && overtimeHoursBiweekly > 0) {
biweeklyOvertimePay = overtimeHourlyRate * overtimeHoursBiweekly;
}
totalBiweeklyGrossPay = biweeklyGrossPayRegular + biweeklyOvertimePay;
} else {
resultDiv.innerHTML = "Please enter either Annual Salary OR Hourly Rate and Hours Worked Per Week with positive values.";
return;
}
totalBiweeklyNetPay = totalBiweeklyGrossPay – biweeklyDeductions;
// Display results
var output = "
Your Biweekly Pay Breakdown:
";
output += "Regular Biweekly Gross Pay:
$" + biweeklyGrossPayRegular.toFixed(2) + "";
if (biweeklyOvertimePay > 0) {
output += "Biweekly Overtime Pay:
$" + biweeklyOvertimePay.toFixed(2) + "";
}
output += "Total Biweekly Gross Pay:
$" + totalBiweeklyGrossPay.toFixed(2) + "";
if (biweeklyDeductions > 0) {
output += "Total Biweekly Deductions:
$" + biweeklyDeductions.toFixed(2) + "";
}
output += "
Estimated Biweekly Net Pay: $" + totalBiweeklyNetPay.toFixed(2) + "";
resultDiv.innerHTML = output;
}