MIT to transition to semi-monthly pay schedule in April
MIT’s current pay schedule will transition from a monthly to semi-monthly schedule starting in April. This change will affect faculty, salaried staff, graduate students, and fellows. These individuals will receive the same total pay per month, but half that amount will be paid earlier.
An information session about this new pay schedule was led by Chris Durham, assistant director of Human Resources/Payroll and Merchant Services Feb. 21. The event was attended by several staff members from various MIT departments.
The new pay dates will be on the 15th and last day of each month. However, if either day falls on a weekend or a holiday, the pay date will be moved to the previous Friday. Consequently, the pay dates for the month of April will be on Friday, April 13 and Monday, April 30.
Undergraduates will continue to be paid weekly, Durham said in an interview with The Tech.
Durham explained that one of the reasons for the pay schedule change was to remain competitive in the marketplace. The state of Massachusetts and other local institutions, such as Harvard University, currently follow a bi-weekly schedule.
MIT’s HR recruiting teams have previously said that it has been a challenge to transition some people to MIT. “The current monthly pay schedule can be hard for individuals coming from an institution or business with a more frequent pay schedule,” Durham said.
However, some employees have already adjusted to the monthly pay schedule. “I’m used to just paying all my bills at the beginning of every month, so I’ll have to change my own schedule,” said Maxine Samuels, HR coordinator at the Research Laboratory of Electronics, who attended the information session.
MIT’s new semi-monthly pay schedule is most similar to that of Tufts University. When asked why MIT chose to opt for the semi-monthly pay schedule over the bi-weekly pay schedule, Durham explained that the semi-monthly pay schedule poses “no timing issues.” In the bi-weekly pay schedule, employees are paid every other Friday of the month, which sometimes results in being paid three times a month. As a result, employees are paid different amounts each year.
“Semi-monthly, like monthly, is nice because it fits the calendar evenly, which makes things on the administrative side much easier,” Durham said.