Twice a month pay periods.

[ReverendBSB]

So a few years back I worked a job delivering appliances. Not much pay, but the overtime was plenty and seemed not to be a problem. Then one day I notice a posting by the time clock. It stated that pay periods were not every two weeks, but twice a month. First pay period covering days 1-15 second covering 16-end of month. This got me wondering how they calculated things like overtime when the 15th would be in the middle of the week. I know they could still easily calculate when you go over 40 in the same week even if it were different pay periods but this seems more complicated (defeating what I would assume the point of the twice monthly pay periods to be). Or maybe they were cheating us on overtime and expecting us not to notice when this happened and the check came three weeks later (and no paper pay stubs as well). Unfortunately I was pretty deep in the bottle at the time so I never gave it much thought, but looking back I wonder.

[EricKei]

They probably were hoping y'all didn't notice, yeah...

In any case, AFAIK, in the US, OT is based on 40 hours per calendar week/7 consecutive days. It makes no difference (to the labor laws) whether you get paid weekly/biweekly/monthly/whatever.

[Luna Baby]

When I worked at the local factory, those of us in the office were paid twice monthly. Overtime for anyone not exempt was easily calculated as we all were held back one check (paycheck paid on the 30th was for 1st-15th and you were paid for the 16th-30th on the 15th of the following month).

Where it gets really tricky is that my current employer pays us current, all regular hours except exception hours (PTO, holiday, OT, etc) and those exception hours will be paid/adjusted to the following check. When someone leaves employment and their last check is only for the few OT hours they had the previous pay period, they get really bent out of shape until we remind them-you were paid current all but exception hours. I sometimes have to pull screenshots and calculate it manually for them to understand.

[Arcus]

At my job they do this. Everyone is full time and works 40 hours. If you need to take a day off, they just count the 8 hours for that day as unpaid. Overtime is voluntary so if they ask to work late, you get overtime even if you took a day off. To them, the extra pay is the incentive to work the extra hours.

[raw1989]

My job pays out every 3 weeks however once u get your pay check its bi weekly they hold a full week back because my call center is mainly commission biased and they need final numbers before payroll can be paid out however I do not work in commission so your first pay check sucks.

[Slave to the Phone]

(and no paper pay stubs as well).

The OT has been addressed, I wanted to talk about this part. As long as your employer pays taxes, they are required to allow you access to your paystubs in some fashion. The paystubs are often stored on the employer's website somewhere that its a pain for an employee to get to, but if they are not available, its time for a call to whoever enforces your labor laws.

[GOInsanity]

My current job only pays once a month. So on the 29th or 30th of the month, you'll get a deposit and a stub for that month. It's really crazy because they pre-pay you for the last few days. I assume that if you work overtime those last few days, they'll bump it to the next months check or let you bank the hours.