Disadvantages of a Bi-Weekly Payroll

While there are many advantages to a bi-weekly payroll, such as reduced paperwork and larger pay checks, there are also several disadvantages to look at. While the employer, more or less, see this as an advantage by this, the employees view it at a disadvantage.

Since there are fifty-two weeks in a year, there will be twenty-six pay checks with a bi-weekly pay system. This means there will be two months where the employee gets three checks. This is excellent for the employee who has created a household budget that fits in with the two normal paychecks. This employee has extra money that he can spend on himself. However, if the accounting department overlooks these two months and does not include them in the company's annual budget, this can interrupt the cash flow.

While the accounting department has an easier time to track and catch mistakes before the payroll is due, mistakes still happen. An employee may have worked overtime and it was not calculated. With the weekly payroll, the employee will get the money in the next check. However, with the bi-weekly pay system, he has to wait two weeks.

With a weekly pay check, the employees know which days they are getting paid. Usually, pay day falls on a specific day, such as Thursday. Sometimes, due to holidays on certain weeks, the pay checks may be delayed a day. With the bi-weekly payroll, the pay dates do not always fall on the same week. Usually the pay days fall on days fifteen and thirty, unless if either of these days falls on a weekend. An employee not paying attention to when his check is available may not have the funds to pay a bill. Many people are taking advantage of online banking to pay bills. If an employee does not have the funds in the bank when a bill is paid, he can be hit with costly overdraft fees.

Another disadvantage to the employee in regards to a bi-weekly paycheck is that, even when they get paid weekly, a majority tend to live from paycheck to paycheck. With the costs of living constantly going up as well as paying monthly bills, most people would rather get paid more often. With a bi-weekly pay period, many are unable to set aside a budget to meet their financial needs. When the first paycheck is gone within a few days, waiting until the next pay day can seem like a long time. To some it is even torture.

While employees have to wait longer between pay periods, a bi-weekly payroll is even harder for new hires. Where, with the weekly payroll, a new employee has to work the first week and wait until the end of the next to get a pay check, with a bi-weekly payroll, he may have to wait a month before getting a full paycheck.