Can anyone help, fortnightly pay?

[Toughtips]

I'm on 17500 pa.

I get paid fortnightly.

I've only ever been paid monthly.

How much should I get paid in those increments?

Confused as assumed it would be half and half but what I've just been paid doesn't add up.

Can anyone help or know who I speak to at work? Recently started the job so new to it.

You will get 26 payments (2x26=52).

Did you calculate tax and NI deductions as well?

There is a website called listentotaxman.com that might be able to help.

if you put any annual salary into www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php it will calculate the standard tax and NI and break it down into monthly and weekly - just double each weekly number to get the fortnightly equivalent.

if you get Universal Credit you will need to plan very carefully because with fortnightly pay you will get a higher rate of payment in the 9 months where there are 2 paydays and a lower payment (or nothing at all) in the 3 months where there are 3 paydays. you are expected to save up some of your income to spread the effect of this through the peaks and troughs.

I don't have any tax credits as husband earns too much

If you are paid fortnightly each pay packet should be less than half of the amount that you would get monthly. However over the year it works out as the same as you get 26 of them compare to 2 *12 (which is24). A clearer way of thinking about it is there are more than 4 weeks in a month so 2 weeks is not half that.

Use the online calculators suggested above to work out the net pay you should get.

For monthly pay, divide your annual salary by 12 to get your monthly pay.
For two-weekly pay, divide your annual salary by 365, then multiply by 14.
Dividing your monthly pay by 2 will not give you an accurate figure, as there are more than two fortnights in a month (except February)

Another way to look at it is as @Zebrasinpyjamas says: if you get paid monthly you get paid 12 times a year. By your reasoning, being paid fortnightly would mean being paid 24 times a year.
However, this is not correct. Being paid fortnightly means you get paid 26 times most years, and about every 5 years or so you would get paid 27 times.

So according to calculator I should take home 1273 is this right, so how do I calculate from there?

I did the above calculation and it says I should get 586?

According to the salary calculator your weekly pay is £293.86. £293.86 x 2 = £587.72. What were you paid?

With a £17,500 annual salary, your pay before deductions should be about
Monthly £1,458.33
Fortnightly £671.23
How much was your gross pay?

496? 😑

Just think twice a year you get a payment start of month middle and end....
You will find it easier to budget...

Is that your gross pay, or what went in the bank (net pay)?

Net pay

Don't work it out with net, as that's after tax and everything else, and everybody's circumstances and deductions are different. Work it out with gross pay, and then make sure your deductions are correct. What was your gross pay?

If you got £496 net, that sounds about right to me? What were you expecting?

Will I get that paid again next time then?

I was expecting to take home 1200 odd a month which doesn't work out if I'm only getting 496 once every two week?

But remember that, as a pp has pointed out, twice a year you'll get three payments in a month. A month isn't 4 weeks, so it's not just double your pay

So I won't get 1200 odd every month then? Some months will be less?

£496 every two weeks is equivalent to about £12,931 a year, which works out to about £1077 take home a month.
This extrapolates to a salary of about £14,034.
Is your tax code correct? Are you on emergency tax? Do you pay into a pension? What salary is shown on your wage slip?
This is why I asked for your gross pay - people cannot possibly tell whether you are being paid correctly unless we know what your gross pay is.

538.46 is my gross pay for this pay packet.

My contract says im on 17500pa

So I won't get 1200 odd every month then? Some months will be less?
Forget monthly. You are not being paid monthly. You are being paid every two weeks. This is not twice a month. It is 2.16 times a month, which means 10 months a year you get paid twice, and two months a year you get paid three times. Omce every 5 years or so there will be three months in which you get paid three times

16.40 tax NI 25.73

Ok. I'm so new to being paid twice a week. How do I go about budgeting this. Goodness me.

538.46 is my gross pay for this pay packet.
That's wrong, unless it is your first pay slip, and you started part way through a pay period. Is it your first pay slip since you've been working there?