2026 US Federal Pay Period Calendar

26 biweekly pay periods · OPM-anchored convention

How to read this schedule

Each pay period is 14 days long and starts on a Sunday. Payday is normally the second Friday after the period closes — exactly 10 calendar days after the period end date. If a payday lands on a federal holiday, payment shifts to the preceding business day.

Annual leave accrual, performance plan periods, and within-grade increase eligibility for federal employees are typically counted in pay periods rather than calendar months, which is why the PP number rather than the calendar date is the canonical reference inside HR systems.

Year-end pay-period considerations

The biweekly cadence drifts roughly one day per year against the 365-day calendar. Approximately every 11 to 12 fiscal years a 27th pay period falls inside the year, requiring a budget adjustment of about 3.8% on top of the standard 26-period payroll baseline. Federal HR systems handle the 27-period year automatically, but commercial payroll systems mirroring the OPM cadence sometimes do not — the variance shows up as an unexplained Q4 payroll overrun. Check the pay-period mechanics guide for the calculation.

For payroll teams running a non-federal cadence, this schedule is still useful as a reference for federal banking holidays that shift payday: any Friday payday landing on or near a federal holiday is bumped to the preceding business day. Cross-reference our public holidays index when planning year-end pay processing and the final pay period of the calendar year.

Other years