Payday Rules: Weekly, Biweekly and the States That Decide for You

“Can I pay my crew every two weeks?” In much of the country, yes. In some states, not for the people on the tools. Federal wage law says little about how often you pay; the states fill the gap, and a handful choose the schedule for you. Here is how to find your state’s rule, what New York and California require, how to stay on time when a job runs long, and what goes on the stub.

What federal law says, and does not

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the minimum wage and overtime, not a pay schedule. Its interpretive rule on overtime says it outright: “There is no requirement in the Act that overtime compensation be paid weekly.” What it does require is timing within whatever schedule you keep: overtime earned in a workweek “must be paid on the regular pay day for the period in which such workweek ends” (29 CFR 778.106). How often that payday comes is state law, and the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division keeps a table of the states’ rules, “State Payday Requirements.”

States that set the schedule for you

From the footnotes to the Department of Labor’s table (with Connecticut’s statute added, because its note covers only the exception), a sample of how differently states answer:

The table says it was last revised January 1, 2023, so treat it as the place to start and confirm the current rule with your state’s labor department before you set or change a payday.

New York: manual workers every week

New York Labor Law §191(1)(a) is the rule a crew owner there plans around: “A manual worker shall be paid weekly and not later than seven calendar days after the end of the week in which the wages are earned.” A manual worker is “a mechanic, workingman or laborer” (§190(4)), and if a role mixes office and field work, ask the state Department of Labor how the rule applies. Outside non-profit organizations, paying manual workers semi-monthly takes the labor commissioner’s authorization, which the statute reserves for large employers (an average of at least 1,000 employees in New York, among its conditions). Clerical and other workers may be paid as agreed, but not less often than semi-monthly (§191(1)(d)).

The damages for missing the weekly rule are set in §198(1-a). As it now reads, when an employer paid a manual worker on a regular payday, no less often than semi-monthly, a first violation of the weekly rule carries damages of no more than 100% of the lost interest on the late wages. An employer already subject to a previous finding and order for the same violation, with the time to appeal it run out, faces liquidated damages equal to 100% of the wages paid late. A first offense costs the interest; a repeat after a final order can cost the late wages over again.

California: twice a month, on days set in advance

California Labor Code §204(a) makes wages “due and payable twice during each calendar month, on days designated in advance by the employer as the regular paydays.” Work from the 1st to the 15th is paid between the 16th and the 26th; work from the 16th to the end of the month is paid between the 1st and the 10th of the next. A weekly, biweekly or semimonthly payroll satisfies the rule “if the wages are paid not more than seven calendar days following the close of the payroll period” (§204(d)). So biweekly works in California, with payday no more than a week after the period closes.

Two more pieces. §207 requires a posted notice of the regular paydays and the time and place of payment, where employees can see it. And §210 sets a penalty for paying late: $100 for each failure to pay each employee on an initial violation, and $200 for each failure plus 25% of the amount withheld for a later or willful one.

When a job runs late

Two things go wrong on a job that overruns: the hours, and the money.

The money. Both states tie wages to when the work was done: New York to “the week in which the wages are earned,” California to the dates the “labor was performed.” Neither rule says anything about the job being finished or the customer having paid. Payroll comes out of your cash on payday whatever the customer does, which is why it belongs in a 13-week cash forecast and why progress payments matter on long jobs.

The hours. When overtime from the last days of a period cannot be worked out by payroll day, the federal rule allows payment “as soon after the regular pay period as is practicable,” and “in no event” later than the next payday after it can be computed (29 CFR 778.106). California is more specific: wages for labor beyond the normal work period must be paid “no later than the payday for the next regular payroll period” (§204(b)(1)), and they can be itemized as corrections on that next stub, stating the dates of the period being corrected (§204(b)(2)).

Say a California remodeler pays every other Friday for a two-week period that closes the Saturday before, six days inside the seven-day limit. A tile job runs long on the last Friday and Saturday of a period, and the overtime hours from those two days reach the office after payroll is run. The regular hours are paid on schedule; the overtime goes on the next regular payday, listed as a correction with the dates it covers. What does not work is waiting for the homeowner’s final payment to pay anyone.

Pay stubs

Federal law does not require one. The Department of Labor’s FLSA answers say so in one line, “The FLSA does not require an employer to provide employees pay stubs,” while still requiring records of hours and pay. States can and do require them:

• California, §226(a). With each payment (or semimonthly), an accurate itemized statement showing gross wages, total hours worked, piece-rate units and rates if any, all deductions, net wages, the dates of the pay period, the employee’s name with only the last four digits of the Social Security number or an employee ID, the employer’s legal name and address, and every hourly rate in effect with the hours worked at each. Keep a copy at least three years. For a knowing and intentional failure, an employee can recover the greater of actual damages or $50 for the first pay period and $100 for each later one, up to $4,000 (§226(e)).
• New York, the Wage Theft Prevention Act. At hire, a written notice of the pay rate (and overtime rate), how pay is figured, the regular payday, and the employer’s names, address and phone, in English and in the employee’s primary language where the Department of Labor offers a translation, signed and dated by the employee. Each payday, a wage statement with that payroll data plus the employee’s name, the employer’s name, address and phone number, and the dates covered. If anything in the notice changes, employees get at least a week’s notice unless a new pay stub carries it. The department’s guide puts missing wage statements at up to $250 per day per employee, capped at $5,000 per employee in civil suits, unless all wages the law requires were paid. The same guide has employers keep payroll records, the hire notice and its acknowledgment included, for six years.

Whoever runs your payroll, the stub is only as right as the hours and rates that go into it. Elsewhere, check your own state’s wage statement rule; New York and California show how much a state can ask.

Setting your payday

1. Find your state in the Department of Labor’s table, then confirm the current rule with the state labor department.
2. Pick a frequency the rule allows for crew; in New York that means weekly for manual workers.
3. Fix the day, and leave enough time between the close of the period and payday for time sheets, inside any state limit (seven days in California and in New York’s weekly rule).
4. Tell people in writing: California’s posted payday notice, New York’s hire notice. The paperwork for a first hire is in Hiring Your First Employee.
5. Decide how late hours get corrected, and put payroll in the cash forecast.
6. Know that a last paycheck has its own deadlines, in Final Paychecks.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and vary by state; check with the agency named above or a professional for your situation.