Federal Pay Period Calendar 2027

Federal civilian employees are paid on a biweekly pay period calendar that looks nothing like the calendar year. Each pay period runs from a Sunday through the second following Saturday, the periods are numbered 01 to 26, and the pay date falls almost two weeks after a period ends. The USDA National Finance Center (NFC), which runs payroll for many federal agencies, publishes the calendar each year as Form NFC-1217, and this page and the calculator above follow its 2027 edition. Enter any date and you get the pay period it belongs to, its start and end dates and the typical pay date.

The Full 2027 Pay Period Table

The table lists all 26 pay periods with the NFC official pay date. Pay periods 25 and 26 are paid in January 2028.

How the Federal Pay Period Calendar Works

A federal pay period is 14 days, always Sunday through Saturday, and there are 26 of them in 2027. According to the NFC's 2027 pay period calendar, pay period 01 starts on Sunday, January 10, 2027 and ends on Saturday, January 23. That means the first nine days of the calendar year, January 1 through January 9, belong to pay period 26 of 2026, which runs from Sunday, December 27, 2026 through Saturday, January 9, 2027. Pay period 26 of 2027 ends on Saturday, January 8, 2028.

Pay periods and months do not line up, so a pay period often straddles two months. Pay period 03, for example, starts on Sunday, February 7, and pay period 05 runs from March 7 through March 20. If you track a budget or time-and-attendance reports by month, remember that the federal system tracks them by pay period, which is why a date can belong to a period that started in the previous month.

Finding the Pay Period for Any Date

The lookup tool above answers the question "which pay period is this date in?" by counting 14-day blocks from the start of pay period 01. You can do the same by hand. Pay period 01 starts January 10, so a date's pay period is the number of full 14-day blocks since January 10, plus one. Friday, June 18, 2027, the day Juneteenth is observed, is 159 days after January 10, which is 11 full blocks, so it falls in pay period 12 (June 13 through June 26) and is paid on July 8.

Two more examples. Friday, December 24, 2027, the observed Christmas holiday, is in pay period 25 (December 12 through December 25), paid on Thursday, January 6, 2028. Tuesday, January 5, 2027 is before pay period 01 begins, so it belongs to pay period 26 of 2026, paid on Thursday, January 21, 2027. Dates before December 27, 2026 or after January 8, 2028 are outside the 2027 calendar, and the tool tells you so rather than guessing.

Related Calculators

• When Is My Next Payday? Pay Period Calculator
• Biweekly Pay Calendar 2027
• Working Days in 2027

Pay Dates: When You Actually Get Paid

The NFC pay-date calendar lists two dates for each pay period: an EFT date and an official pay date. The official pay date is a Thursday that falls 12 days after the pay period ends, and the electronic funds transfer is dated the Monday before it. Pay period 01, which ends January 23, is paid on Thursday, February 4, 2027. Pay period 12, which ends June 26, is paid on Thursday, July 8, and because Monday, July 5 is a federal holiday, the NFC lists its EFT date as Tuesday, July 6.

The pay date is therefore more than a week after the work ends, so a paycheck always covers a period that has already closed. Two pay dates deserve a note. Pay period 21 is paid on Thursday, November 11, 2027, which is Veterans Day, and pay period 22 is paid on Thursday, November 25, 2027, which is Thanksgiving; the NFC calendar still lists those as the official pay dates, with the EFT dates on the Mondays before them. Employees paid by a different federal payroll provider can have different dates, so confirm yours with your agency.

Why the Pay Period Number Matters

Many federal personnel actions are tied to pay period boundaries rather than to calendar dates. Time and attendance is certified by pay period, and leave is credited per pay period under the rules published by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). A step increase, promotion or change in benefits is often effective at the start of a pay period, so knowing the start date tells you when a change shows up. Holidays matter as well: the federal holidays that OPM lists for 2027 include Friday, June 18, Monday, July 5 and Friday, December 24, all observed because the holiday itself falls on a weekend, and they are paid holidays within whichever pay period contains them.

If you also plan finances around a private-sector spouse's calendar, note how different the two schedules are. Private employers choose their own lag between the end of a period and payday, and it is often shorter, while the NFC calendar pays 12 days after the period ends. Compare the two with the biweekly pay calendar, and see working days in 2027 to count the federal holidays inside any period.

Practical Tips

Print or bookmark the calendar from the NFC at nfc.usda.gov and match it against your agency's own payroll calendar. Check your earnings and leave statement each period, since it shows the period dates and pay date for your records. For budgeting, look at deposit dates rather than period end dates: pay periods 05 and 06 produce deposits on April 1 and April 15, while pay periods 07 and 08 produce deposits on April 29 and May 13, so April brings three deposits (April 1, April 15 and April 29), and September does too (September 2, 16 and 30), while every other month has two. Use the tool each time a deadline is expressed as a pay period number, and keep a note of the exact start date.