Payday Requirements

State Payday Laws

Below is a chart of state payday requirements in brief, under state payday laws. It lists how often employers must pay employees in each state, such as weekly, biweekly, semimonthly or monthly.

Employers may pay employees sooner or more frequently than the minimum periods mandated by state payday laws, but not later or less frequently, except when a state allows exceptions (noted in the chart).

Because independent contractors (ICs) are not employees in the legal sense (unless misclassified), state payday laws typically do not apply to them.

Instead, IC payday requirements are a matter of contractual agreement. It's not unusual for employers to contractually pay ICs 30 days in arrears, the same as they pay other vendors.

Payday requirements for union workers might be a matter of agreement too, per collective bargaining agreements. Typically, contractual agreements may mandate more frequent paydays than the state requires for employees, but not fewer.

Be sure to read the footnote indicated for your work state in the State Payday Laws Chart, if applicable.

State Payday Laws Chart

State Payday Laws Footnotes

¹ Alabama and South Carolina. No state payday laws or related regulations or payday requirements are not specified.
² Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico and Virginia. Monthly payday requirements are for Executive, Administrative and Professional personnel.
³ Arizona. Payday two or more days in a month, not more than 16 days apart.
⁴ Connecticut. Longer interval (up to monthly) permitted if approved by labor commissioner.
⁵ Hawaii. Employees may choose to be paid on a monthly basis under special election procedure. Director of labor and industrial relations also may grant exceptions to the general semimonthly payday requirement. Payday requirement applies only to private-sector employment.
⁶ Iowa. Payday requirement is no more than 12-days excluding Sundays and holidays, after the end of the period in which the wages were earned. Farm labor contractor at least monthly, semimonthly, or biweekly.
⁷ Louisiana. Applicable to entities engaged in manufacturing, mining, or boring for oil, employing 10 or more employees, and to every public service corporation. Payment is required once every two weeks or twice during each calendar month.
⁸ Maine. Payment due at regular intervals not to exceed 16 days.
⁹ Michigan. Frequency of payday depends on the occupation.
¹⁰ Minnesota. Must be paid within 24 hours to employees engaged in transitory employment (migrant workers) requiring the employees to change their places of abode, because employment was terminated after completion of the work or because the employees were discharged or quit.
¹¹ Mississippi. Applicable to every entity engaged in manufacturing of any kind in the State employing 50 or more employees and employing public labor, and to every public service corporation doing business in the State. Payment is required once every two weeks or twice during each calendar month.
¹² Montana. Payday must be within 10 days after wages are due and payable.
¹³ Nebraska and Pennsylvania. Payday designated by employer.
¹⁴ New York. Weekly payday for manual workers. Semimonthly payday upon approval for manual workers and for clerical and other workers.
¹⁵ North Carolina. None specified. Payday requirements may be daily, weekly, biweekly, semimonthly or monthly.
¹⁶ Rhode Island. Childcare providers have the option to be paid every two weeks.
¹⁷ Texas. Monthly payday for employees who are exempt from overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
¹⁸ Utah. Payments are to be paid at regular intervals, but in periods no longer than semimonthly.
¹⁹ Vermont. Employers may implement biweekly and semimonthly payday with written notice.
²⁰ Virginia. Employees whose weekly wages total more than 150 percent of the average weekly wage of the Commonwealth may be paid monthly, upon agreement of each affected employee.
²¹ Florida. Minimum payday requirement shown is only for state officers and employees. May be biweekly or semimonthly, if requested by the head of a state agency and approved by the Executive Office of the Governor and the Department of Financial Services. Minimum payday requirement for private-sector employees is not specified in state laws.

State Payday Laws Source

State payday law requirements and related footnotes were complied from data provided by the:

Office of Performance, Budget, and Departmental Liaison
Wage and Hour Division
Employment Standards Administration
U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)

State payday requirements were effective as of January 1, 2009, according to the DOL; but, state payday laws are subject to change. To verify that the chart is still up to date for your work state or for more information about a state payday law, start by checking with the wage and hour (or equivalent) division of the relevant state labor department.

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