# "I make US $ xxxxx". What does it mean exactly? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 1, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876 "2006-08-01T14:21:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/61 "2006-08-02T15:50:44Z")
[QUOTE=Mithrander] Seems fairly simple to me. biweekly is 26 times a year (sometimes 27). If you wanted to get paid 104 times a year, you would be paid semi-weekly. I get paid twice a month, or semi-monthly. [/QUOTE] Ow, my head! This is bloody confusing… To me, “Biweekly” means “twice a week”- ie, 104 times a year. “Semi-Weekly” means “something approximating each week”- every 5-9 days or something like that. It’s such an odd term- especially since the English term “Fortnightly” (referring to a two-week period) fits the bill so perfectly. It would be a lot easier if people just said “I get paid every week/every other week/every month/every other month” and be done with it, IMO… ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/62 "2006-08-02T16:06:42Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] “Semi-Weekly” means “something approximating each week”- every 5-9 days or something like that. [/QUOTE] So, in your dialect, “semi” means not “half,” but instead “kind of.” Fascinating. How would you parse “hemidemisemiquaver”? “Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a quaver”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/63 "2006-08-02T16:08:26Z")
Another monthly paycheck in the US, here. I don’t think it’s that uncommon (for professional, technical work, at least.) ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/64 "2006-08-02T17:50:08Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] To me, “Biweekly” means “twice a week”- ie, 104 times a year. “Semi-Weekly” means “something approximating each week”- every 5-9 days or something like that. It’s such an odd term- especially since the English term “Fortnightly” (referring to a two-week period) fits the bill so perfectly. It would be a lot easier if people just said “I get paid every week/every other week/every month/every other month” and be done with it, IMO… [/QUOTE] It’s consistent across biweekly and bimonthly (every two of each) but falls apart with biannual, which can mean semiannual (2x a year) or biennial (every two years). ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/65 "2006-08-02T18:05:03Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > The first part has been answered. The second part: I am currently paid every two weeks. Before that I was paid twice a month. I _much_ prefer to get paid twice a month, instead of every two weeks. My paydays are on the 15th and the last day of the month (or the business day prior, if payday falls on a weekend). Right now I’m basically living paycheck-to-paycheck, and being paid twice per month is much easier for budgeting, as I have split my bill payments over the two halves of the month. I get paid on the 30th/31st, then I pay my rent (main utilities included) and buy a bus pass on the 1st. Then I get paid on the 15th, and pay my (three) student loans, cell phone and internet. (I am paying 2 to 4 times as much as the minimum payment on my student loans to pay them off quicker, so my total student loan monthly payment total is almost as high as my rent). > [@Mirthrander](#): > > Just to add a bit of the Canadian perspective here, usually you can tell by context if someone is talking about their gross of net wage. If someone says “I make X a year” that’s almost always gross. If someone says “I take home X a month/every two weeks” that’s usually net. In Canada, depending on how high your wage is, I’d say that take home is anywhere between 92% (part-time minimum wage) and 55% (top bracket) I’m Canadian (in Alberta), and that corresponds to how people I know state their salary. My annual gross is almost $35,000, but semi-monthly take-home pay is usually about $1,050. So net about $2,100 per month, and my my net pay is about 73% of my gross. Checking my pay stub, my semi-monthly gross pay is about $1,500. There are deductions for health care, life insurance, CPP (Canada Pension Plan), employment insurance, long-term disability premium deduction, employee pension plan deduction (5% of gross pay) and income tax. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/66 "2006-08-03T04:26:12Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] So, in your dialect, “semi” means not “half,” but instead “kind of.” Fascinating. How would you parse “hemidemisemiquaver”? “Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a quaver”? 😃 [/QUOTE] Pretty much. ---
**Author:** ![Jammer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@Jammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jammer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/67 "2006-08-03T05:30:58Z")
I’ve been in various IT jobs since 1988 with several different companies and I’ve been paid monthly every single year except 2006. I much prefer monthly payment since all the bills are monthly. Nothing easier than getting the direct deposit on the last day of the month, paying all the next month’s bills at the first of the month, making a nice savings deposit and then knowing that everything left over is for discretionary spending. I get paid every two weeks now and I hate it. I feel like I never really know for sure where I stand for the month. I can’t pay the entire month’s bills on one paycheck, so I’m always sort of in limbo. I guess I need to figure out how to change my mindset. To answer the question of the OP, my “take home” pay is about 61% of my gross salary. However, of that 39% that I don’t take home, $400.00 a month is 401(k) savings, $150.00 a month is employee stock purchase plan and $166 a month is health insurance for our family of four. So the pure after tax portion would be a better percentage, for sure. Jammer ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/68 "2006-08-03T06:33:42Z")
[QUOTE=Cerowyn] There is no ambiguity with respect to “bi-monthly” except as people use it incorrectly. If you’re paid twice a month, it’s semi-monthly, not bi-monthly. [/quote] I agree with you. But here in Australia bimonthly is so often used incorrectly that it has begun to take on both meanings, as \*\*Giles \*\* notes. So much so that the local Macquarie Dictionary gives both definitions for bimonthly: > [@](#): > > bimonthly > > 1. occurring every two months. > 2. occurring twice a month; semi-monthly And back to the OP: I’m paid fortnightly, as is everyone else I know. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/69 "2006-08-03T10:59:18Z")
I live in the UK. Every professional job I’ve ever had was paid monthly. Every temp job was paid weekly. All house for rent at my local estate agents are in monthly payments. On TV soap operas :eek: , a cheap flat might mean weekly collections. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/70 "2006-08-03T11:14:49Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] Managers get paid _monthly_ in the US??? They must get pretty sizeable paycheques to be able to adequately budget for that… [/QUOTE] In Spain, the only people I can think of who don’t get paid monthly are whores. Oh, and farmers, farmers don’t get paid monthly. They get the money from whenever they sell, plus government aid (too much of the EU budget is farm aid). Even artists often set themselves up as a “single person company”, treat income from gigs as “company income” and draw themselves a monthly salary check. When I was a graduate student and got my “pay” from my local government in Spain, they paid in 4 installments, so I got paid every 3 months. Never had a problem with it. The usual pay schedule is 14 pays: 12 regular monthlies, which include base yearly salary/14 plus commision if applicable plus extra hours if applicable, minus taxes. Then 2 “extras” right before Christmas and in July (used to be July 18 and Dec. 18, but calling July 18th “Victory Day” is, uh, unfashionable at the very least, nowadays); these are your base/14 minus taxes. Talking about _your_ salary with actual numbers outside of HR conversations is generally Not Done. Asking someone how much they make is a good way to lose a friend. Mention of numbers is usually understood to mean “gross base” although my previous employer had assumed “net” for some reason. Many people have no idea how to read their paycheck’s information, like my SIL who thought that when she temped as a doc she was being paid more than the docs she was covering for (yearly gross was the same, but because she wasn’t going to get the extras, she was getting her base divided by 12 and not 14). ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/71 "2006-08-03T14:16:59Z")
[QUOTE=Waenara] I _much_ prefer to get paid twice a month, instead of every two weeks. My paydays are on the 15th and the last day of the month (or the business day prior, if payday falls on a weekend). Right now I’m basically living paycheck-to-paycheck, and being paid twice per month is much easier for budgeting, as I have split my bill payments over the two halves of the month. [/QUOTE] But the fun of biweekly is once you get used to paying your bills on 1/26 every two weeks, twice a year it’s a three-paycheck month! Whee! I used to live for those. ---
**Author:** ![the\_PC\_apeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_PC\_apeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_PC_apeman)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/72 "2006-08-03T14:49:25Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] But the fun of biweekly is once you get used to paying your bills on 1/26 every two weeks, twice a year it’s a three-paycheck month! Whee! I used to live for those. [/QUOTE] Weekend entertainment being one of my biggest expense variables, the drag of being paid twice a month is having the three-weekend pay periods every three or four times a year. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876/73 "2006-08-03T15:08:48Z")
At various jobs I’ve held over the years (retail and office), I was paid either weekly or every other week. At my current job as a preschool teacher at a private school, I’m paid once a month. To be precise, I’m paid on the last working Friday of each month, September through May. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-us-xxxxx-what-does-it-mean-exactly/366876.md?page=3)