Add, change, or remove a pay schedule

Your pay schedule is a combination of three pieces of information:

The pay period
- The timeframe during which your employee worked.
The pay date
- The day employees receive their wages for the pay period.
Start of workweek
- The start date for the FLSA designated 7-day consecutive period used to calculate overtime pay. We’ll default the weekly and biweekly pay schedules’ “start of workweek” to the first day of the pay period. The default for all other pay schedules is Sunday.

Paying in arrears

If there's a delay between your pay period and your pay date, this is called paying in arrears—this is common for hourly employees because it gives you time to collect their hours and process payroll.

Example: Your employee works from January 1-7, and you pay them for that week on January 13. Your pay period is January 1-7 and your pay date is January 13.

Use the dropdowns below to learn more about a topic, or use CMD + F (or CTRL + F) to search for keywords throughout the article.

Types of pay frequencies you can choose from—includes pay schedule requirements for each state

Many states have regulations surrounding pay schedules—scroll to the table below that shows 2022 pay schedule frequency requirements by state. Once you've chosen a schedule, click the Add a new pay schedule dropdown below to set it up in Gusto.

Weekly: Every week on a specific day of the week (52 payrolls per year).
- Example: Every Friday.
Biweekly: Every two weeks on a specific day of the week (26 payrolls per year).
- Example: Every other Friday.
Semi-monthly: Twice per month on two specific dates of the month (24 payrolls per year).
- Example: The 15th and the last day of the month.
Monthly: Every month on a specific date of the month (12 payrolls per year).
- Example: On the 26th.
Quarterly: Once every calendar quarter (4 payrolls per year). Quarterly pay schedules align to calendar quarters, a check date in a given month will apply to the wages earned for the pay period it fell in.
- Example: A January 2nd check date would have the pay period January 1- March 31. An August 15th check date would have the pay period July 1 - September 30.
Annually: Once every year. The pay period will always be defined as January 1 through December 31. The check date will be determined by the payroll administrator.
- Example: A June 30th check date would have the pay period January 1 - December 31st. Payroll reminders will occur the following year.

2022 pay frequency requirements by state

Use the table below to determine what pay frequencies are allowed in each state.

Last updated May 3, 2022.

State	Weekly	Bi-weekly	Semi-monthly	Monthly	Important information—read carefully	Agency resource
Alabama	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Public service corporations employing 50 or more people must pay employees at least twice per month and not more than 15 days following the close of a pay period. Alabama does not have laws dictating when or how frequently private sector employers must pay employees their wages.	Alabama Department of Labor resource
Alaska	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Depends—see important information.	An employer must pay employees at least once per month on regularly scheduled paydays. Employers may pay monthly or semi-monthly if elected by the employee.	Alaska State Legislature resource
Arizona	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	An employer must pay two or more days per month, not more than 16 days apart.	Industrial Commission of Arizona resource
Arkansas	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Only corporations that have an annual gross income of $500,000 or more may pay management-level employees that are classified as exempt from overtime, and that earn an annual gross income of more than $25,000 a minimum of once per month.	Arkansas paycheck requirements resource
California	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Wages must be paid twice during each calendar month on the days designated in advance as regular paydays. For exceptions, click the link in the next column.	California Department of Industrial Relations resource
Colorado	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Wages must be paid regularly once per month, no later than 10 days following the end of each pay-period.	Colorado Department of Labor and Employment resource
Connecticut	Yes	Approval required—see important information.	Approval required—see important information.	Approval required—see important information.	Employers must pay employees at least weekly, and on a regular payday designated in advance, no later than 8-days after the end of the pay-period. Longer pay frequency intervals, up to monthly, can be permitted if approved by Labor Commissioner.	Connecticut Department of Labor resource
Delaware	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Employers must pay wages at least once per month, no later than 7-days after the close of the pay-period.	Delaware Department of Labor resource
District of Columbia (Washington D.C.)	Yes	Yes	No	Depends—see important information.	Non-exempt employees must be paid at least twice per month. Administrative, executive, and professional employees must be paid at least once per month.	Council of the District of Columbia resource
Florida	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Florida has no requirements for pay frequency.	Florida Department of Labor resource
Georgia	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Georgia's law requires workers to be paid at least twice per month.	Georgia Department of Labor
Hawaii	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Every employer is required to pay wages to all employees at least twice during each calendar month, on regular paydays designated in advance by the employer.	State of Hawaii Wage Standards Division
Idaho	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	All employees must be paid at least once per month, no more than 15 days after the end of the pay-period.	Idaho legislature resource
Illinois	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Employees should be paid at least twice per month. Exceptions may be allowed for commission payments. Click on the link for additional information.	Illinois Department of Labor resource
Indiana	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Any employer doing business in Indiana, must pay each employee at least semi-monthly or biweekly.	Indiana General Assembly resource
Iowa	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Employers must pay wages at least monthly, twice a month, or every two weeks on regular paydays.	Iowa Labor Center resource
Kansas	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Must pay employees at least once per month, on regular paydays, and inform employees of paydays in advance.	Kansas Department of Labor resource
Kentucky	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Employers must pay employees at least semi-monthly.	Kentucky General Assembly resource
Louisiana	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Employers must pay most hourly employees via a regular payday at least bi-weekly or semi-monthly.	Louisiana Legislature resource
Maine	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Employers can pay employees at least every 16 days.	Maine Legislature resource
Maryland	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Employers must pay employees every two weeks or twice per month. Executive, Professional and Administrative employees may be paid less frequently.	Maryland Department of Labor resource
Massachusetts	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Hourly employees must be paid on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, within six days of the pay period ending. Employers may pay exempt and salaried non-exempt employees weekly, bi-weekly, or semi-monthly. Employers can pay monthly at the employee's request.	Commonwealth of Massachusetts resource
Michigan	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	All employees must be paid at least on a semi-monthly basis.	Michigan Legislature resource
Minnesota	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Employers must pay all wages, including salary, earnings, and gratuities earned by an employee at least once every 31 days; and all commissions earned by an employee at least once every three months, on a regular payday designated in advance by the employer regardless of whether the employee requests payment at longer intervals.	Minnesota Legislature resource
Mississippi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Mississippi does not have laws dictating how often to pay employees. Exception: if your company is engaged in manufacturing and has 50 or more employees, or if you're a public labor or public service corporation, then you must pay your employees at least biweekly or semi-monthly, or on the second and fourth Saturday of every month. Manufacturing and public labor companies must pay their employees within 10 days of the end of the pay period. Public service corporations must pay their employees within 15 days of the end of the pay period.	Mississippi Payroll Rules resource
Missouri	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Executive, administrative, or professional employees, salespersons, and employees on commission may be paid monthly.	Revisor of Missouri resource
Montana	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Employers must establish regular pay schedule and pay wages no more than 10 days following the end of the pay period.	Montana Department of Labor and Industry resource
Nebraska	Designated by employer, and approved by employee	Designated by employer, and approved by employee	Designated by employer, and approved by employee	Designated by employer, and approved by employee	Designated by employer, and approved by employee.	Nebraska Department of Labor resource
Nevada	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	A monthly payday is only permitted for Executive, Administrative, and Professional personnel.	Nevada Department of Business and Industry resource
New Hampshire	Yes	Yes	Yes, with written permission—see important information.	Yes, with written permission—see important information.	Weekly or bi-weekly payment of wages is required. Semi-monthly or monthly payment of wages are available upon written permission of the NHDOL.	New Hampshire Department of Labor resource
New Jersey	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Monthly paydays are permitted only for exempt Executive, Administrative, and Professional personnel.	New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce resource
New Mexico	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Monthly payday requirements for exempt Executive, Administrative, and Professional personnel. Penalties are imposed for violations.	New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions resource
New York	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Depends—see important information.	Depends—see important information.	New York State Labor Law requires manual workers to be paid weekly, and clerical and other workers at least twice per month. Review the link to the right for additional information about pay frequencies.	New York State Senate resource
North Carolina	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Pay periods may be daily, weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly.	North Carolina Legislature resource
North Dakota	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Must pay at a minimum of monthly or on a regularly scheduled pay date.	North Dakota Code resource
Ohio	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Payment at shorter or longer intervals is permitted when it is customary or when it has been established by written contract or law.	Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules resource
Oklahoma	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Every employee must be paid all wages due at least twice each calendar month. State, county, municipal and overtime exempt employees shall be paid a minimum of once each calendar month.	Oklahoma Labor Department's Wage and Hour FAQ resource
Oregon	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Paydays may not be more than 35 days apart.	Oregon Labor and Industries resource
Pennsylvania	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Pennsylvania employers must pay their hourly employees every two weeks or more frequently depending on the terms of the employment contact.	Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry resource
Rhode Island	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Depends—see important information.	Depends—see important information.	Every employee must be paid weekly for all wages due from an employer. Exceptions: Those employees whose compensation is fixed at a bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly or yearly rate, and those employees working for the state and its political subdivisions and of religious literary, or charitable corporations.	Rhode Island Labor Relations resource
South Carolina	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No regulation on pay frequency.	South Carolina Legislature resource
South Dakota	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Employers must pay all wages due at least once each calendar month.	South Dakota Legislature resource
Tennessee	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Employers must pay at least monthly.	Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development resource
Texas	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Employees exempt from the overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) must be paid at least once per month; others must be paid at least twice a month. Semi-monthly pay periods must contain, as nearly as possible, an equal number of days.	Texas Workforce Commission resource
Utah	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Employees on a yearly salary can be paid on a monthly basis.	Utah Payment of Wages
Vermont	Yes	Yes, with written consent from the employee	Yes, with written consent from the employee	No	Employers must pay employees on a weekly basis. However, after providing written notice to its employees, an employer may issue paychecks on a bi-weekly or semi-monthly basis. Payday must be within six (6) days of the last day of the pay period.	Vermont Department of Labor resource
Virginia	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—see important information.	Employees exempt from overtime should be paid at least once a month and hourly employees should be paid at least once every two weeks or twice a month.	Code of Virginia resource
Washington	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Employers must pay wages at least once per month on a regular payday.	Washington State Legislature resource
West Virginia	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Employers must pay wages at least twice every month on a regular basis.	West Virginia Division of Labor resource
Wisconsin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes—review the resource for exempt employees.	With limited exceptions, employers must pay wages at least monthly. The only employers exempt from this requirement can be found by clicking the Wage Payment and Collection Law link to the right.	Wisconsin Wage Payment and Collection Law resource
Wyoming	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends—review resource for a list of restricted occupations.	Wyoming does not have laws governing how frequently an employer must pay its employees. Certain occupations are not permitted to pay employees monthly.Review the resource to the right for more info.	Wyoming Workforce FAQ resource

Add a new pay schedule—choose from everyone on one, or differentiate by compensation type, employee, or department

Set up your pay schedule(s) with Gusto so we know when to pay your employees. We support the following pay schedule frequencies: weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, monthly, quarterly, and annual schedules.

Pay schedule options

Everyone on one pay schedule
- All employees, hourly and salaried, will be on the same pay schedule
- Compatible with Gusto Time Tracking and Projects.
By compensation type
- Hourly and salaried employees will be on separate pay schedules.
- Compatible with Gusto Time Tracking and Projects.
By employee–this pay schedule type can only be established after onboarding has been completed.
- Allows creation of custom multiple pay schedules (e.g. by location, department, owner status, etc.)
- Compatible with Gusto Time Tracking and Projects.
By department–requires that you enable the departments feature.
- Allows pay schedule assignment for every department.
- Compatible with Gusto Time Tracking and Projects.

For advice about what schedule(s) would work the best for your company, check out our blog post.

Set up a new pay schedule

Go to the Payroll section and select Payroll settings.
- If you’re still onboarding, go to the Pay Schedule section.
  - Consider Gusto’s recommendation for pay schedule type and paying in arrears–creating a buffer between the end of the pay period and payroll deadline so employees’ hours can be reviewed and approved.
  - Be sure to check your state laws to know what schedule is right for your team.
Click Add New Pay Schedule under the "Pay Schedule" section.
Choose how you’d like to assign employees to a pay schedule:
- Everyone on one schedule
- By compensation type
- By employee—this pay schedule type can only be established after onboarding has been completed. You can edit an existing schedule once you complete onboarding.
- By department—requires that you enable the departments feature first, then assign employees to departments.
Click Continue.
Select the pay schedule you’d like to use for each group or add a new one using the drop-downs.
- If adding a new schedule: follow the remaining prompts to set it up, click Preview upcoming paydays before saving to see a snapshot of your pay schedule in the future, and click Save once complete.
  - Keep in mind: paydays will always fall on a weekday, regardless of the payment method (check or direct deposit). If the payday falls on a weekend or bank holiday, the system will default to the business day prior to the payday.
Click Continue once all employee types have been assigned to a pay schedule.
Review the changes, and click Submit if everything looks correct.
If you had autopilot enabled, click the Payroll section and select Payroll settings to enable it again for the new payroll(s).

When adjusting your pay schedule, you might have to run a special transition payroll. If so, it’ll be waiting for you on your Home page. To edit your pay schedule(s) in the future, follow the instructions in this article.

Preview your pay schedule

To see a snapshot of your pay schedule (pay periods and pay dates) in the future, follow the steps below.

Click the Payroll section and select Payroll settings.
Underneath the “Pay Schedule” headline, click Preview upcoming paydays to see a snapshot of your pay schedule in the future.
- On the top right side of the preview, you can toggle between list and calendar views.

Click here to sync payroll reminders to your personal calendar.

Change a pay schedule or pay period and learn about transition payrolls

Click the Payroll section and select Payroll settings.
Click edit next to the pay schedule "Pay Frequency" you need to update.
Select the pay frequency–how often employees are paid.
Select what day of the week they'll be paid.
Choose the first pay date on the new schedule.
Confirm or change the Pay period.
Click Preview upcoming paydays before saving to see a snapshot of your pay schedule in the future.
- We'll automatically create a transition payroll for any gap between the old pay period and the new pay period—learn more in the Transition payrolls dropdown below.
Once you've set up your preferred schedule, click Save.
If a transition payroll is generated on your Home page, this must be processed or skipped before the next regular payroll can be run. Click the dropdown below to learn more.

Transition payrolls—paying employees for the gap period between your old and new pay schedule

A transition payroll lets you pay employees for any workdays that fall during the gap between the last day of an old pay schedule and the first day of a new schedule.

If a transition payroll is generated on your Home page, this must be processed or skipped before the next regular payroll can be run.

Click the Skip an employee's payroll or the entire payroll dropdown in this article to skip one or more employees’ transition payroll.
If needed, you can always process an off-cycle payroll in place of a skipped transition payroll.

Tax, benefit, and payment reminders

Taxes

Transition payrolls will use the same default settings and tax calculations as your new Regular Payroll schedule.
- Expect different taxation if you're transitioning from one type of pay period to another (ex. monthly to semimonthly).
If your accountant has set up a recurring income tax override for an employee, the recurring override will not be recognized in the transition payroll. Only one-time income tax overrides will be recognized in the transition payroll.

Benefits

Gusto-managed benefit deductions will not occur on transition payrolls.
- If you have Gusto-managed benefits and run a transition payroll, contact us from the Help or Priority support section of your account so we can make sure your benefit amounts are accurate on the new pay schedule.
External benefit deductions will still occur.

Payments and time tracking

For salaried employees, a transition payroll will automatically pro-rate for actual days worked.
Time tracking hours will not sync for transition payrolls.

View and edit which employees are assigned to which pay schedule

You can view and edit who is assigned to what pay schedule by following the below steps:

Head to the Payroll section and click Payroll settings.
Scroll to the “Pay Schedules” headline, and click Edit how the employee is assigned.
Use the dropdowns next to each employee's name to move them from one pay schedule to another.

Change the "start of workweek" for a pay schedule

Workweeks are used only for the purposes of calculating overtime pay using a 7-day consecutive period. Editing a workweek will not change your company’s pay frequency, pay period, or pay date.

You can designate one “start of workweek” per pay schedule. We’ll default the weekly and biweekly pay schedules’ “start of workweek” to the first day of the pay period. The default for all other pay schedules is Sunday.

Change your “start of workweek”

Heads up: To make sure employees get the proper overtime pay, we'll limit the number of times you can change your start of workweek. For example, if you change it once, you'll have to wait a full workweek (from the start of the new workweek) before you can change it again.

Head to the Payroll section and select Payroll settings.
Under the “Pay Schedule” section, click Edit next to “Start of workweek.”
Select the day of the week that you’d like for your workweek to start on.
Select Save.

Remove a pay schedule

To remove an existing pay schedule, you’ll need to change the pay schedule “assignment type” altogether and set up one or more pay schedules again.

Click the Payroll section and select Payroll settings.
Under the "Pay Schedule" section, click Edit how employees are assigned.
- If you only have one payroll schedule, click edit next to the pay schedule and change the details.
- Heads up: If you have more than two pay schedules, and dismiss an employee who was the only person remaining on the pay schedule, it cannot be deleted. At this time, Gusto also cannot delete the pay schedule on your behalf.
Reconfigure your pay schedule(s) so the unwanted schedule no longer applies—this may require unassigning all employees from the pay schedule you want removed.
- Selecting Everyone on one pay schedule will make it so your company only has one pay schedule going forward.