Payroll processing for biweekly hourly employees is straightforward; however, processing for semimonthly hourly employees can get confusing. For biweekly hourly employees, simply pay the employee according to the number of hours he worked over the past two weeks. For semimonthly hourly employees, to avoid confusion, most employers give employees a payroll calendar, which shows when semimonthly time cards should be submitted for each pay period.
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Semi- can always mean bi- but bi- may not necessarily imply semi-. Biweekly is the most common option for a business’s pay period in the U.S. Biweekly pay means you pay your employees on a set day once every two weeks, resulting in 26 paychecks per year. Since some months have 31 days and others have 30, a semimonthly hourly employee may sometimes receive payment for different number of days.
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Therefore, when following the rules of AP Style or the Chicago Manual of Style, you should write biweekly as one word with no hyphen. This highlights the subtle difference between the bi- and semi- prefix when applied to a temporal word. Nick, I think you’re pointing to the source of the confusion. Many people think that since bifurcating (or bisecting) something divides it, then biweekly must mean to divide the week; but they misunderstand the derivation of the word. The reason that bifurcating something divides it is because it causes it to have two (bi-) forks (furcates) or branches. The difference between bi-weekly and fortnightly comes down to regional usage.
Is “Bi-weekly” Hyphenated?
Neither of these terms should be confused with semimonthly, which divides a year into exactly 24 periods (12 months × 2), instead of the 26 (52 weeks ÷ 2) of fortnightly/biweekly. For payroll accounting purposes, there are 26 pay periods per year for a biweekly payroll system. Most months have two pay periods, but two months of the year will have three. Some people write bi-weekly spelling variations with a hyphen, thinking it changes the meaning. Understanding biweekly writing conventions helps ensure clarity.
- As the following examples show, the other words in the sentence indicate which of the two meanings biweekly has.
- Once you start the year, you’ll pay your employees once every two weeks.
- Understanding biweekly writing conventions helps ensure clarity.
- This does not happen with a semimonthly payroll, which always happens 24 times per year.
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To avoid confusion, it’s best to clarify the intended meaning when using bi-weekly. Biweekly (or bi weekly) means either every two weeks or twice a week. For example, a biweekly paycheck means you get paid every two weeks, while a biweekly class could mean twice a week. The term biweekly has two meanings, which often leads to misunderstandings. The biweekly grammar rules do not distinguish between these two definitions, making context crucial.
- While biweekly is one of the most commonly confused words with the bi- prefix, it’s not the only one.
- Not everything has to be a single word, so don’t be afraid to use more than one word when you want to use clear, understandable, unambiguous language.
- The difference between bi-weekly and fortnightly comes down to regional usage.
- Most months have two pay periods, but two months of the year will have three.
- It is called biweekly, meaning something that happens every two weeks.
Biweekly or Bi-Weekly: What’s the Difference?
Biweekly may also be used as a noun to describe a newspaper or magazine that prints once every two weeks. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.
Is there a word that means “every four weeks”?
Is there a compelling biweekly synonym reason you cannot use “every four weeks”? The advantage of using the phrase is that there is less possibility of being misunderstood. The first meaning is to refer to something that happens twice per week. Aliza Chasan is a Digital Content Producer for “60 Minutes” and CBSNews.com. She has previously written for outlets including PIX11 News, The New York Daily News, Inside Edition and DNAinfo.
Maybe ‘thrice’ is not found in the residual English of the former colonies. Confusingly (according to dictionary definitions) the same is also true of biweekly; bimonthly; and biyearly. Furthermore, even though using the hyphen is unnecessary, it is not wrong to use it.
Biweekly is most often used in professional settings to describe the frequency of meetings or how often workers are paid. A biweekly meeting with your manager takes place once every two weeks unless otherwise specified. A semiweekly meeting, on the other hand, occurs twice a week. Semimonthly means your employees get paid on two specific days of the month, regardless of when they fall. For instance, you might choose to pay your employees on the 15th and 30th of every month. British people use the word fortnight—which derives from the old English word for “fourteen nights”—to refer to events that occur once every two weeks.
If you use words like triweekly, you will just confuse everyone. Even if their interpretation of the word is correct, they will be unable to rely on your interpretation also being correct and matching theirs. For instance, a “fortnightly” event would occur every 2 weeks/14 days. In terms of meaning, the word biweekly can be a bit ambiguous because of the two meanings.
Biweekly means both, but most American English speakers use it to refer to something occurring every other week or twice monthly. Biannual is more straightforward, as it’s only used to mean twice a year. In this case, the prefix bi- us is used to mean “occurring twice.” Use the word biennial to describe events occurring once every two years.