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This question might sound stupid, but I am unable to find any answer to this. Suppose I am getting paid on 26th Jan, does that mean January started or ended on the 26th?

I am building an app that will track the user's pay, but I am kind of confused when to start the calendar month. Based on the chosen month's starting and ending date, the app will display a report for the dates that are within that range. Right now I have given the user the option to change the starting day for every month, however, just selecting the 26th for example is ambiguous. If the user chooses 26th of Jan, am I suppose to start Jan from 26th of Dec or 26th of Jan?

jimma
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  • What does your boss and/or the payroll department say? Anyway, in the US, paychecks typically arrive the week after the pay cycle. Thus, your period would have ended on the 19th. But... there are many variations, so ask your boss. – RonJohn Jan 19 '18 at 20:03
  • In Denmark you typically get paid on the last or second last bank day in the month (some companies on the third last bank day) even though the cycle goes all the way to the last calendar date, actually giving you money before you have completed “all your work” – ssn Jan 19 '18 at 20:07
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    There is no set rule that you can follow, I've seen it done a dozen different ways, you'd need to build in the flexibility to handle all pay period variations. – Hart CO Jan 19 '18 at 20:42
  • @HartCO thanks, I don't mind creating all the various methods, I just want to make sure that there isn't any set rule for this that I am unaware of. – jimma Jan 19 '18 at 20:51
  • Just because you get paid on a certain day also doesn't mean that that is when the pay period ends. Sometimes you will end a 2-week pay period and then be paid 7 days after that. If you are building an app I'd suggest having an option to switch which day it starts on, as it is different for many jobs. – Michael Hartmann Jan 19 '18 at 22:14
  • @MichaelHartmann That's exactly what I have right now, an option to switch the day. However, just selecting the 26th for example is ambiguous. If the user chooses 26th of Jan, am I suppose to start Jan from 26th of Dec or 26th of Jan? I thought there would be some concrete rules for that, but it seems everyone is making things up as they go along. – jimma Jan 19 '18 at 23:24
  • @jimma I will post an answer where I can address everything properly and with better formatting. – Michael Hartmann Jan 21 '18 at 07:54

2 Answers2

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First, lets get some definitions down so we can talk clearly about what we are trying to figure out.

Pay Period: The (usually 2 week) period of time in which all worked hours are calculated and a pay check is issued according to the hours worked.

Pay Day: The day on which you receive your pay check.

Suppose I am getting paid on 26th Jan, does that mean January started or ended on the 26th?

The answer to this could be started, ended, or neither, depending on pay schemes. Pay Days usually come a week or two AFTER the pay period ends, rarely have I seen people getting paid immediately following the pay period they just finished. This is to allow time for accountants to apply taxes and calculate any overtime or extra pay.

If you are on salary, and your pay check is the same every month no matter what, you may get paid right away. For that matter, even if your pay period was two weeks and there was two weeks of lag until your pay-check, it may appear that you are paid immediately following the pay-period, when in the eyes of accountants, you are being paid for two weeks ago.

As for figuring this out, most pay stubs should say which period they are pertaining to so that employees can double check that the check is correct.

Right now I have given the user the option to change the starting day for every month...

I think there needs to be more options than this. First, select between a biweekly, paid on friday scheme with a two week lag for pay-check (Very common). Here a user only inputs the days on which the week starts and you're done.

The second would be a fixed start date (such as every 1st and 16th). For this you would use the information from the pay stubs to determine when those start dates were. Generally, regardless of the number of days in a month (and thus the number of days in the pay period) pay days or calendar months begin on the same day. For example, say pay periods start the 1st and 16th. This is very common. Your pay period then ends on the 15th, and last day of the month (be that 28, 30, 31)

If a user could input the type, and then the appropriate start dates, you have the app do the rest.

I thought there would be some concrete rules for that, but it seems everyone is making things up as they go along.

There aren't.

There are many different pay schemes out there, varying by company policy, common practice, national law, and international employment standards. What we come up with here or what you build into your app may not be applicable to everyone.

Because I'm invested in this now, I'm gonna answer your original question the best I can.

If you have pay day on Jan 26th, assuming a 7-day lag from the end of the pay period and a roughly 15 day pay period, your periods end on the 19th, and therefore start on the 20th and 6th (15 days later).

Now assume your pay day is Jan 26th and you are on a biweekly, paid friday scheme with you being paid the friday following the pay period, and weeks end on Sunday. Your current pay period started on the 21st, and your previous pay period ended on the 20th. Your next pay day will be the 8th of February.

Someone please correct me if I messed this up, it's late haha.

Michael Hartmann
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The date you get paid is not necessarily the end of the pay period. I've had many jobs where there was a delay between the end of the pay period and payday. I'd think this would almost always be true for people who are paid by the hour, or who are eligible to receive overtime pay, or who don't work full time, because it will take the company some amount of time, typically a couple of days, to pull all the records together and figure out how much you were supposed to be paid for that period.

But in any case, what difference does it make? I don't know what this software you're building is supposed to do, but what difference does it make one the company's pay periods are? If you get paid on, say, the 29th of every month, what difference does it make whether the pay period is the 30th of each month through the 29th of the next, of it matches the calendar month and then there's a 29-day delay until you get paid, or what? Figure out what matters to your software, and worry about that.

Jay
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  • I am not worried about the mentioned problem because I have time to spare and nothing better to do. The software gives the user the option to display reports based on the period chosen. If the user chooses a monthly report then I need to figure out when a month starts and ends so I can display a report based on the dates that fall within that range. As @HartCO said above, its different for every company and that's fine. I need to provide several more options in terms of how months are suppose to be displayed as per user expected behaviour. – jimma Jan 19 '18 at 23:18