Hey, it turns out that 2015 could be a particularly great year for those of us who often find ourselves living from paycheque to paycheque. Why? Because there will be more paycheques.

Workers who get paid every two weeks will likely be in for an extra payday in 2015. That’s because the calendar year (365 days) isn’t actually divisible by 14, the number of days in the typical biweekly pay cycle.

This causes an extra day to be added on to the pay cycle every year. And in leap years, two extra days are added. When these excess days add up to two weeks, it creates an extra payday. This happens roughly every 11 years or so. (It would be every 14 without the leap years.)

For people paid on Thursdays or Fridays, 2015 is one of those years that will have 27 pay periods rather than the normal 26. That doesn’t mean that you’ll be getting free money, however. Even with the extra paycheque, you’re still only being paid for the hours you have actually worked. It’s just that more of the pay days fall into the 2015 calendar period.

While an extra pay period does not affect hourly workers who are paid specifically for the time they actually work, it will have an impact on salaried employees.

You may simply receive an additional paycheque this year – meaning you earn an extra 4% over last year. Or your employer could divide your salary by 27 instead of 26. This would mean that each paycheque would be slightly smaller this year than last, but you’ll receive more of them.

It might be worth talking to your HR department about how your company is handling the payday leap year. You don’t want to get surprised by a mysterious and unexplained pay deduction from 2014. And if there is an unexpected bonus coming at the end of the year, you can start planning what to do with the windfall early.

See also:

How much do the jobs with the highest demand in Canada actually pay?

How much you need to earn to buy a house in every major Canadian city

10 jobs that can pay from over $60,000 to over $100,000 without a degree

The top 10 hottest jobs for increased starting salaries in 2015

Peter Harris
– Peter Harris on Twitter

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