Why healthcare & pharma employers choose a biweekly cycle
A biweekly payroll schedule pays employees every other week, producing 26 paychecks per year. Two months out of the year contain three paydays. Biweekly is the single most common cadence in the United States and is standard for salaried employees at most large industrial, healthcare, and consumer-products employers.
In the Healthcare & Pharma sector, the biweekly cadence shows up wherever the underlying labor profile favors it. Hospitals, insurers, pharmaceuticals, devices tend to align payroll with the rhythm of biweekly cycles that compromise between hourly cash-flow needs and salaried-staff predictability. The biweekly schedule also simplifies tax-deposit timing and benefits accruals across multi-state operations.
For employees, the practical implications are straightforward: 26 paychecks per year, with the gross divided across 26 equal periods. Workers comparing offers between same-sector employers can largely ignore pay-frequency differences when calculating annual compensation — but should pay attention when comparing weekly to monthly cycles, since the cash-flow gap can affect rent timing and bill autopay setups. Use the pay schedule calculator to model the per-check size against your current take-home.
All 69 Healthcare & Pharma employers paying biweekly
| Company | Payday | HQ | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|
| AbbVie | Friday | North Chicago, IL | 50,000 |
| Abbott Laboratories | Friday | Abbott Park, IL | 114,000 |
| Acadia Healthcare | Friday | Franklin, TN | 23,800 |
| Alnylam Pharmaceuticals | Friday | Cambridge, MA | 2,050 |
| Amgen | Friday | Thousand Oaks, CA | 26,200 |
| Avantor | Friday | Radnor, PA | 14,000 |
| Baxter International | Friday | Deerfield, IL | 60,000 |
| Becton Dickinson | Friday | Franklin Lakes, NJ | 70,000 |
| Bio-Rad Laboratories | Friday | Hercules, CA | 8,250 |
| Bio-Techne | Friday | Minneapolis, MN | 3,000 |
| BioMarin Pharmaceutical | Friday | San Rafael, CA | 3,300 |
| Biogen | Friday | Cambridge, MA | 7,400 |
| Boston Scientific | Friday | Marlborough, MA | 48,000 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb | Friday | New York, NY | 34,300 |
| CVS Health | Friday | Woonsocket, RI | 259,500 |
| Cardinal Health | Friday | Dublin, OH | 47,410 |
| Catalent | Friday | Somerset, NJ | 18,000 |
| Cencora | Friday | Conshohocken, PA | 46,000 |
| Centene | Friday | St. Louis, MO | 67,700 |
| Charles River Laboratories | Friday | Wilmington, MA | 21,300 |
| Cigna Group | Friday | Bloomfield, CT | 70,256 |
| Community Health Systems | Friday | Franklin, TN | 60,000 |
| DaVita | Friday | Denver, CO | 71,500 |
| Danaher | Friday | Washington, DC | 79,000 |
| Doximity | Friday | San Francisco, CA | 1,200 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | Friday | Irvine, CA | 18,000 |
| Elevance Health | Friday | Indianapolis, IN | 102,200 |
| Eli Lilly | Friday | Indianapolis, IN | 43,000 |
| Encompass Health | Friday | Birmingham, AL | 44,000 |
| Fresenius Medical Care | Friday | Bad Homburg, DE | 128,000 |
| Gilead Sciences | Friday | Foster City, CA | 18,000 |
| GoodRx | Friday | Santa Monica, CA | 750 |
| HCA Healthcare | Friday | Nashville, TN | 285,000 |
| Henry Schein | Friday | Melville, NY | 24,000 |
| Hims & Hers Health | Friday | San Francisco, CA | 1,300 |
| Hologic | Friday | Marlborough, MA | 7,100 |
| Humana | Friday | Louisville, KY | 67,100 |
| IQVIA Holdings | Friday | Durham, NC | 87,000 |
| Illumina | Friday | San Diego, CA | 9,700 |
| Incyte | Friday | Wilmington, DE | 2,400 |
| Intuitive Surgical | Friday | Sunnyvale, CA | 11,500 |
| Jazz Pharmaceuticals | Friday | Dublin, IE | 3,000 |
| Johnson & Johnson | Friday | New Brunswick, NJ | 131,900 |
| LabCorp | Friday | Burlington, NC | 75,000 |
| McKesson | Friday | Irving, TX | 51,000 |
| Medtronic | Friday | Dublin, IE | 95,000 |
| Merck | Friday | Rahway, NJ | 68,000 |
| Moderna | Friday | Cambridge, MA | 5,600 |
| Molina Healthcare | Friday | Long Beach, CA | 19,000 |
| Owens & Minor | Friday | Mechanicsville, VA | 20,000 |
| Patterson Companies | Friday | St. Paul, MN | 8,500 |
| PerkinElmer (Revvity) | Friday | Waltham, MA | 16,000 |
| Pfizer | Friday | New York, NY | 88,000 |
| Premier | Friday | Charlotte, NC | 2,700 |
| Quest Diagnostics | Friday | Secaucus, NJ | 50,000 |
| Regeneron Pharmaceuticals | Friday | Tarrytown, NY | 13,000 |
| Repligen | Friday | Waltham, MA | 2,100 |
| Seagen | Friday | Bothell, WA | 3,300 |
| Stryker | Friday | Kalamazoo, MI | 51,000 |
| Teladoc Health | Friday | Purchase, NY | 5,200 |
| Tenet Healthcare | Friday | Dallas, TX | 110,000 |
| Thermo Fisher Scientific | Friday | Waltham, MA | 130,000 |
| UnitedHealth Group | Friday | Minnetonka, MN | 440,000 |
| Universal Health Services | Friday | King of Prussia, PA | 96,700 |
| Veeva Systems | Friday | Pleasanton, CA | 6,300 |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals | Friday | Boston, MA | 5,300 |
| Walgreens Boots Alliance | Friday | Deerfield, IL | 311,000 |
| Waters | Friday | Milford, MA | 7,900 |
| West Pharmaceutical Services | Friday | Exton, PA | 10,500 |
Related views
- All Healthcare & Pharma employers regardless of cadence
- All companies that pay Biweekly across every sector
- The Biweekly primer with calendar examples