US Federal Pay Periods

The US federal government runs payroll on a biweekly schedule of 26 pay periods per year. The Office of Personnel Management publishes the full schedule with start, end, and payday for every period. We mirror that schedule on a single year-at-a-glance page per year, formatted for printing.

About the federal pay calendar

Federal pay periods are 14 days long and begin on a Sunday. Most agencies pay on the second Friday after each pay period closes, although some lag by an additional week depending on bargaining-unit rules. Because 26 × 14 = 364, the calendar drifts by one day per year (two days in leap years), which is why the start dates rotate forward annually rather than landing on the same date each year.

Private-sector employers that mirror the federal calendar use the OPM schedule as the anchor and adjust holidays for their own observance rules. If your business observes additional non-federal holidays, treat the OPM-anchored payday as a hard floor — the actual deposit may shift to an earlier business day if the payday lands on an observed holiday.