2026 payroll calendars

What's distinctive about the 2026 payroll year

Each calendar year produces its own combination of holiday-shifted pay dates and 27th-paycheck risk. For 2026 in particular, biweekly employers should look at how often a Friday pay date lands on or adjacent to one of the federal holidays above; clusters around July 4 and the late-December holidays are the most common cause of payroll funding errors at small businesses. Semi-monthly employers should focus on months where the 15th or the last day falls on a weekend — those are the periods where the pay date will fall on the prior Friday and your time-card cutoff needs to move with it.

To minimize surprises, build your 2026 payroll calendar against the OPM-anchored schedules below, share it with your bookkeeper and payroll provider before the first January run, and rebuild it any time Congress designates a new federal holiday or your state changes its wage payment statute.