Independent payroll-schedule reference · Updated July 2026 Methodology · Submit a correction
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Methodology

Where the pay frequency data comes from, how we make calls when sources disagree, and the known limits of the catalog.

Sources of record

The PayPeriod Hub catalog is assembled from four classes of public-facing source material:

  • Company employment materials. Official career pages, employee handbook excerpts that have surfaced in regulatory filings, and union-contract appendices filed with the U.S. Department of Labor frequently disclose pay frequency in plain language.
  • Employee-reported Q&A. Threads on Glassdoor, Indeed, Reddit (in particular r/AskHR and company-specific subreddits), and Blind contain large amounts of employee-reported pay-cycle information. We weight high-vote, multi-confirmation reports more heavily than single, anonymous claims.
  • Industry trade press. HR Dive, SHRM, Payroll Org, Bloomberg Law, and similar trade publications periodically publish payroll-cadence surveys and contract reporting that names specific employers.
  • The Fortune 500 list and SEC employment counts. The headline list of catalogued companies is anchored to the most recent Fortune 500 ranking, augmented with public-company employment data from 10-K filings.

Industry-norm inference for thin sources

Where direct, employee-reported data is unavailable for an individual employer, we apply industry-norm inference. Pay frequency clusters very tightly by sector — far more tightly than by company size or geography — because it is dictated by the underlying labor mix and accounting cadence of the industry.

The inference rules used in this catalog are:

  • Retail, hospitality, restaurants, construction, logistics, automotive production: default to weekly for hourly staff with biweekly fallback for corporate.
  • Healthcare systems and large insurers: default to biweekly, paid on Fridays for the prior two-week period ending Sunday.
  • Banking, asset management, insurance, technology, utilities, consulting, aerospace/defense: default to semimonthly, paid on the 15th and last business day of the month.
  • Industrial manufacturing, chemicals, energy upstream/midstream: default to biweekly, with shift-differential and overtime included on the same check.
  • Airlines (pilots and flight attendants): default to semimonthly on the 1st and 16th of the month under collective bargaining agreements.

Where we have direct, employer-specific evidence that contradicts the industry norm, the direct evidence wins. Inferred entries are flagged as such in our internal records but are not currently flagged in the public-facing catalog — an enhancement we plan for a future revision.

Scope and exclusions

The catalog is intentionally limited to large U.S. corporate employers. We exclude:

  • Federal, state, and local government employers (which follow statutory pay schedules).
  • K–12 school districts and most public university systems (which follow district- or system-level rules).
  • Privately-held companies with fewer than approximately 5,000 employees (insufficient public data).
  • Single-location employers, professional partnerships, and most private-equity-owned firms.
  • International payroll for U.S.-headquartered firms.

Known limitations and caveats

Pay frequency reported here is the default cadence at the named employer. Real-world payroll is messier:

  • Acquired subsidiaries often retain their pre-acquisition payroll cycle for years before being harmonized.
  • Union-represented employees frequently follow contract-specified schedules that differ from the corporate default.
  • Field-service technicians, retail-floor staff, and warehouse workers within a "salaried-default" company may be on a separate weekly or biweekly cycle.
  • State minimum-payday laws can force a more frequent cadence in certain jurisdictions (notably New York, Massachusetts, and California for some non-exempt classifications).
  • International employees of U.S.-headquartered firms typically follow local norms, which are out of scope here.

Updates

The catalog is reviewed on a rolling basis. Major restructurings, mergers, divestitures, and reported payroll-cycle changes prompt targeted re-checks. We do not currently expose a per-entry "last reviewed" date, but expect to add one in a future revision.

Corrections

The most valuable contribution to the catalog is a verified correction. If you can document that a listed schedule is wrong — ideally with a screenshot of an employee handbook page, a paystub redacted of personal information, or a cited trade-press article — please file a correction via the contact page.