Semi-monthly payroll sounds easy: pay on the 15th and on the last day. Then a Sunday, a Saturday, or a holiday lands on one of those dates, and the easy rule needs a footnote. This calendar for 2027 shows all 24 paydays as peach rings on a wide six-column year, and a strip underneath lists the real pay date for every month, with the adjustments already applied.
Soft Colours for a Busy Topic
Payroll pages are usually grey and corporate. This one uses a pale lilac page, plum month headers, a peach accent and a title in DM Serif Display. Two soft blobs sit in opposite corners and are the only decoration. The goal is a calm page that you would be happy to leave on a desk or pin up in an office.
Six Columns, Two Rows
The year uses six columns and two rows, which is wide rather than tall. That shape leaves room for the strip below and keeps each mini month small but legible. Each paydate sits in the Friday or midweek cell where it falls, so you can see at a glance that a semi-monthly month does not follow a weekly rhythm at all.
The Strip of Month-by-Month Dates
Below the calendar, a twelve-column table gives each month’s two paydays in a single cell. January reads 15 and 29, February 12 and 26, May 14 and 28, July 15 and 30, and August 13 and 31. The strip is a real Table object, so every cell is editable text, and it makes a quick reference when someone asks when March pays.
How Many Paydays Move in 2027
Nine of the 24 scheduled dates change. January 31 is a Sunday, so it moves to Friday, January 29. February 15 is Presidents’ Day and moves to Friday, February 12, and February 28 moves to the 26th. May 15 and May 31 both move, July 31 moves, August 15 moves, October 31 moves, and December 31 moves to the 30th.
The Rule Behind the Adjustments
Every moved payday uses one rule: if the 15th or the last day is a weekend or an observed US federal holiday, pay on the previous business day. Some employers instead pay on the next business day, which would delay money rather than advance it. Because it is easier to explain, many choose the earlier day, and this page follows that approach.
Why Semi-Monthly Suits Salaried Teams
Salaried employees get the same amount twice a month with no extra pay periods in a year. That keeps budgeting simple for the person and for finance. Hourly staff is paid less evenly because the length of each half-month varies between 13 and 16 days, which is something to explain when you onboard hourly workers.
Semi-Monthly Is Not Bi-Weekly
These two schedules are often confused. Bi-weekly pays every second Friday and yields 26 paychecks. Semi-monthly pays on fixed dates and yields 24. A person moving from one employer to the other will see their paycheck size change even if their annual salary stays identical. The calendar makes the difference visible rather than abstract.
Reading the Legend
A peach ring marks a payday and a soft grey square marks an observed US federal holiday. Both sit over the Calendar object as grouped shapes. If you prefer to see only paydays, select a grey square, delete the group’s holiday shapes, and the remaining rings stay put.
Editing the Header Copy
The subtitle spells out the rule in capital letters. Change it to match your policy, for example, if you pay on the 10th and the 25th. When you do, the rings and the strip need to move too, so edit both before printing.
Making It Fit a Different Pay Pattern
If your semi-monthly dates are not the 15th and month end, treat this page as a layout and rebuild the markers. Delete the old rings, add circles of the same size over your paydays, and update the strip cells. It is about ten minutes of work for a calendar your whole team can read.
Places to Display the Semi-Monthly Sheet
The page works well on an HR notice board, inside a payroll binder, or attached to an onboarding email as a PDF. Managers often keep a copy beside their monitor so they can answer a question about the next payday without opening any software at all.
Printing the Peach and Plum Palette
Print on Letter landscape with background graphics on. The pale page tone prints as nearly white on most printers, which saves ink. If you use black and white, the plum headers go dark grey, and the peach rings stay visible because the stroke is dense.
Planning Year End With the Last Row
December has paydays on the 15th and the 30th in this schedule, because December 31 is the observed New Year’s holiday for 2028. That means the year’s final paycheck arrives a day early, and employees who expected the 31st will want to know. A note in the staff newsletter in early December prevents confusion.
Honest Cautions
This is a planning sheet. It does not know your bank’s processing times, your state’s final pay rules, or your contract wording. Different countries and companies also define a payday in different ways, so confirm any firm promise to employees with your payroll provider or adviser.
Short Answers About the Semi-Monthly Page
How many paydays? 24. How many move? Nine. Is it Monday or Sunday start? Sunday, and you can change it in Calendar Options. Can I use it for the 1st and 15th? Yes, after moving the rings. Is the strip a real table? Yes, it is an editable Table object.
Why a Notice Board Copy Saves Questions
Every payroll team knows the pattern: a few days before a moved payday, three people ask whether the money is arriving on the 15th or the 12th. A copy of this sheet on the notice board, with the February and May dates visible in the strip, answers most of them without a single message, and it shows employees that the date moved for a stated reason.
Handling New Hires Mid Cycle
A person who starts on the 10th will receive a partial first period. The strip helps explain this to a new hire in a sentence: your first pay arrives on the 15th for the days you worked from the 10th to the 15th. Use the sheet during onboarding, and mark the first payday with a highlighter so the person remembers it.
Using the Plum and Peach Palette With Brand Colours
If your organisation has brand colours, swap the plum for the main brand colour in the month headers and the peach for an accent. Keep the ring colour distinct from the holiday squares so the two kinds of marker never blur together. A quick test is to print a grayscale copy and check that you can still tell them apart.
