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Bi-weekly Pay Period Leap Year

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Bi-weekly Pay Period Leap Year

So I was looking up my pay schedule for 2015, and noticed that since 2016 Jan 1st is a Friday, we get a stub on Dec 31st instead, which results in 27 pay periods.

Then further reading, it turns out some companies maintain at dividing by 26 on the annual (effectively a 2-4% increase for everyone) or dividing by 27 making each cheque a bit lower to make up for the 27th. And I read that reason why some keep it 26 is because of legal implications for lower paid individuals, it might breach laws on minimum wage if they divide the annual by 27 or 53. (Says here. Site in US though, so not sure if it applies to Ontario.)

What's your company doing for this, if you're paid biweekly?
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Deal Addict
Jul 11, 2008
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i get paid bi-weekly on wednesdays, and there's 26 paycheques in 2015. not sure if i answered your question...
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Aug 17, 2008
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most companies divide annual salary into 52,18 weeks (26,09 bi-weekly)
365,25 days in a year/7days week = 52,18 weeks in a year

so no adjustment required when there is 53 or 27 pay periods in the year
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Feb 15, 2014
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if ever there was much ado about nothing...
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Mar 25, 2013
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semiotic wrote: if ever there was much ado about nothing...
Not to mention that bi-weekly payroll might fall on the opposite week. Not EVERYONE in the world gets paid on the same week, or on Fridays for that matter.
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Mar 9, 2014
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Paid bi-weekly and in 2015 have 27 pay periods-- normal payday would have fallen on Jan 1st, so they pushed it back 1 day to December 31st due to the stat holiday.

I'm not paid an annual salary though, I'm essentially paid a weekly salary, so they don't have to divide anything...they just pay me what I've earned for the pay period prior.

No big deal- I still pay a disgusting amount of tax either way.
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sr79 wrote: most companies divide annual salary into 52,18 weeks (26,09 bi-weekly)
365,25 days in a year/7days week = 52,18 weeks in a year

so no adjustment required when there is 53 or 27 pay periods in the year
No they don't. This treatment is actually very rare except for very large employers that have the foresight to understand this isuue happens every 11 years for bi-weekly employees and 7 for weekly employees.

OP - failing a Collective Agreement that deals with the issue - the employer can administrate how they choose. Many will pay the annual salary divided by 26, 27 times. Others will take the annual salary divde by 27 and pay 27 times. This effectively reduces the biweekly payment but the annual salary is paid due to the 27th payment.

If an employer does reduce the biweekly amount there is an argument that is constructive dismissal. It would take a resignation and a lawyer to make a stand.

Rarely does it impact min wage as those people are generally paid by the hour and arent salaried.
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semiotic wrote: if ever there was much ado about nothing...
This is actually a huge issue especially for employers subject to sunshine list disclosure.

If the annual salary is divded by 26 then paid 27 times an extra payment is included in the T4 and the list will be inflated due to this issue.
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based on T4, 27 pays in 2014 and 25 pays in 2015
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Sep 26, 2006
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dutchca wrote: This is actually a huge issue especially for employers subject to sunshine list disclosure.

If the annual salary is divded by 26 then paid 27 times an extra payment is included in the T4 and the list will be inflated due to this issue.
Inflated by one paycheck? Do people really care that much? Everyone on that list remains overpaid regardless
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Wigglepuppy wrote: Paid bi-weekly and in 2015 have 27 pay periods-- normal payday would have fallen on Jan 1st, so they pushed it back 1 day to December 31st due to the stat holiday.

I'm not paid an annual salary though, I'm essentially paid a weekly salary, so they don't have to divide anything...they just pay me what I've earned for the pay period prior.

No big deal- I still pay a disgusting amount of tax either way.
booblehead wrote: based on T4, 27 pays in 2014 and 25 pays in 2015
Interesting.... I get paid on Thursdays bi weekly and I got paid today (Wednesday) presumably since tomorrow is a stat holiday making it the 27th paycheque for the year. The YTD amount in the paystub shows more than my annual salary so biweekly amount wasn't reduced - at least this year. Will be interesting to see if there are any adjustments next year since there are 26 paydays in 2015.
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barricuda wrote: Interesting.... I get paid on Thursdays bi weekly and I got paid today (Wednesday) presumably since tomorrow is a stat holiday making it the 27th paycheque for the year. The YTD amount in the paystub shows more than my annual salary so biweekly amount wasn't reduced - at least this year. Will be interesting to see if there are any adjustments next year since there are 26 paydays in 2015.
Me too now that I think of it. Neat.

Too bad it doesn't make me any richer.
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sure it does, the extra pay (last of) in 2014 would have no cpp and ei deduction on it.

$200 or so in the pocket on the last day of 2014 as the next (first) pay in 2015 will have those crappy deductions ...
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dutchca wrote: OP - failing a Collective Agreement that deals with the issue - the employer can administrate how they choose. Many will pay the annual salary divided by 26, 27 times. Others will take the annual salary divde by 27 and pay 27 times. This effectively reduces the biweekly payment but the annual salary is paid due to the 27th payment.

If an employer does reduce the biweekly amount there is an argument that is constructive dismissal. It would take a resignation and a lawyer to make a stand.

Rarely does it impact min wage as those people are generally paid by the hour and arent salaried.
Yes, that part I understand. What I'm saying is generally what are companies leaning to doing and what their own companies are doing.

I found out mine is going the divide by 27 and 27 times way...

What I don't understand was we used to be semi-monthly prior to a merger and wouldn't have this, but after the merger we got switched to bi-weekly yet our US counterparts remained on semi-monthly, so don't understand what they are doing.
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booblehead wrote: sure it does, the extra pay (last of) in 2014 would have no cpp and ei deduction on it.

$200 or so in the pocket on the last day of 2014 as the next (first) pay in 2015 will have those crappy deductions ...
Interesting, never thought of it like that.
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bluedcfive wrote: Inflated by one paycheck? Do people really care that much? Everyone on that list remains overpaid regardless
Yes, people will care. Especially in the case of Police officers and middle managers that will be on the list now but werent in the past. The public wont care that there is a legitimate explanation or that some will fall off the list the following year.

Keep in mind a biweekly pay for those people can be as much as $3800 gross.
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ToniCipriani wrote: Yes, that part I understand. What I'm saying is generally what are companies leaning to doing and what their own companies are doing.

I found out mine is going the divide by 27 and 27 times way...

What I don't understand was we used to be semi-monthly prior to a merger and wouldn't have this, but after the merger we got switched to bi-weekly yet our US counterparts remained on semi-monthly, so don't understand what they are doing.
Are you in a union?

It is bordering on constructive dismissal for an employer to reduce a biweekly pay.

You could make an issue of it. The Canadian Payroll Association has some very good information. It might be available on the web somewhere.
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dutchca wrote: Are you in a union?

It is bordering on constructive dismissal for an employer to reduce a biweekly pay.

You could make an issue of it. The Canadian Payroll Association has some very good information. It might be available on the web somewhere.
How the heck is it constructive dismissal if you are paid 50k and it is given to you in 26 or 27 payments? You are not being shortchanged in any way...you are getting paid 50k for your services for the year.
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booblehead wrote: sure it does, the extra pay (last of) in 2014 would have no cpp and ei deduction on it.

$200 or so in the pocket on the last day of 2014 as the next (first) pay in 2015 will have those crappy deductions ...
You will also be paying the 2015 CPP and EI for two weeks longer...so it nets to 0 in the end.
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Jul 3, 2013
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Weird. My company paid me today instead of tomorrow. Is that because of the leap year issue?

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