Boston University is changing its pay schedule for all monthly paid faculty, salaried staff, graduate students, and fellows to semimonthly. If you are affected, a semimonthly pay schedule means you will receive approximately half your monthly pay on the 15th or previous business day of each month and the remaining half on the last business day of each month.

The change will be effective in August 2023. If you are impacted by this change with the new semi-monthly pay schedule you will receive your first semimonthly paycheck on August 15th and your second August paycheck on August 31st.

Faculty, salaried staff, graduate students, and fellows who are currently paid on a monthly basis. Weekly paid employees will continue to be paid on a weekly basis.

No. All monthly paid faculty, salaried staff, graduate students, and fellows will transition to the semimonthly pay schedule in August 2023

This change will create a more frequent pay schedule and align the University with payroll best practices. A more frequent pay schedule provides several benefits for you, such as, earlier pay each month and more frequent contributions to your retirement accounts. In addition, the current monthly pay schedule can be difficult for individuals transitioning from positions with more frequent pay cycles. The semimonthly pay schedule can ease this transition.

A semimonthly pay cycle occurs twice per month—on the 15th of the month and the last business day of the month. If either of these dates falls on a weekend or holiday, the pay date will be on the preceding business day. Instead of the current 12 pay dates per year in the monthly pay schedule, there will be 24 pay dates per year in the semimonthly schedule.

No. Affected groups (BU faculty, salaried staff, graduate students, and fellows) will continue to receive the same total amount of pay each month as they do with the current monthly pay schedule.

There will be 24 semimonthly pay periods in a full calendar year. In 2023, there will be 10 semimonthly pay periods since the change is effective in August

Your contributions to benefit plans will be split evenly between the two semimonthly paychecks each month. No action is needed in order for this to occur; it will happen automatically.

Any election you have made on a monthly basis, such as additional contributions to the Supplemental Retirement and Savings Plan, contributions to the 457(b) plan, and contributions to the Health Savings Account will all automatically be recalculated to equal a semi-monthly amount.

There will be no change in your vacation and sick accruals, if you currently receive them. You will still receive your accrual at the end of each month.

No. If you already have elected to have additional tax withholdings, they will be equally divided between the two semimonthly paychecks. If you have not completed a new W-4 since before 2020, you will need to complete a new form as there have been significant changes made to the W-4 form. Please visit https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/faqs-on-the-2020-form-w-4 for additional information on the changes to the W-4 form.

No, you do not need to make any changes. Your direct deposit will continue to be split as per your current direct deposit election for a fixed amount or a percentage amount in both semimonthly paychecks.

Your deductions will be split in half and will occur in both semimonthly paychecks. If you had $100 in your monthly paycheck deducted now it will be $50 in each of the two semimonthly paychecks.