Federal Pay Period Calendar 2027: All 26 NFC Pay Dates, GSA Numbering and a Free Printable

The National Finance Center (NFC), part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, lists 26 official pay dates in calendar 2027, every other Thursday from Jan. 7 to Dec. 23, on its Pay Period Calendar 2027 (Form NFC-1217). Our one-page printable below puts all of them next to the pay period, the electronic funds transfer (EFT) date and the federal holidays that fall inside each period, which the NFC form does not do.

NFC pay dates 2027, period by period

NFC’s monthly pages show three columns: the pay period (PP), the EFT or paper check date and the official pay date. The table merges NFC’s 2027 pay periods with the federal holidays on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) 2027 schedule.

Pay period	Dates worked	EFT date	Official pay date	Holiday in period
PP25 of 2026			Thu., Jan. 7
PP26 of 2026			Thu., Jan. 21
PP01	Jan. 10-23	Mon., Feb. 1	Thu., Feb. 4	Jan. 18
PP02	Jan. 24-Feb. 6	Tue., Feb. 16	Thu., Feb. 18
PP03	Feb. 7-20	Mon., Mar. 1	Thu., Mar. 4	Feb. 15
PP04	Feb. 21-Mar. 6	Mon., Mar. 15	Thu., Mar. 18
PP05	Mar. 7-20	Mon., Mar. 29	Thu., Apr. 1
PP06	Mar. 21-Apr. 3	Mon., Apr. 12	Thu., Apr. 15
PP07	Apr. 4-17	Mon., Apr. 26	Thu., Apr. 29
PP08	Apr. 18-May 1	Mon., May 10	Thu., May 13
PP09	May 2-15	Mon., May 24	Thu., May 27
PP10	May 16-29	Mon., June 7	Thu., June 10
PP11	May 30-June 12	Mon., June 21	Thu., June 24	May 31
PP12	June 13-26	Tue., July 6	Thu., July 8	June 18 (observed)
PP13	June 27-July 10	Mon., July 19	Thu., July 22	July 5 (observed)
PP14	July 11-24	Mon., Aug. 2	Thu., Aug. 5
PP15	July 25-Aug. 7	Mon., Aug. 16	Thu., Aug. 19
PP16	Aug. 8-21	Mon., Aug. 30	Thu., Sept. 2
PP17	Aug. 22-Sept. 4	Mon., Sept. 13	Thu., Sept. 16
PP18	Sept. 5-18	Mon., Sept. 27	Thu., Sept. 30	Sept. 6
PP19	Sept. 19-Oct. 2	Tue., Oct. 12	Thu., Oct. 14
PP20	Oct. 3-16	Mon., Oct. 25	Thu., Oct. 28	Oct. 11
PP21	Oct. 17-30	Mon., Nov. 8	Thu., Nov. 11
PP22	Oct. 31-Nov. 13	Mon., Nov. 22	Thu., Nov. 25	Nov. 11
PP23	Nov. 14-27	Mon., Dec. 6	Thu., Dec. 9	Nov. 25
PP24	Nov. 28-Dec. 11	Mon., Dec. 20	Thu., Dec. 23
PP25	Dec. 12-25	Mon., Jan. 3, 2028	Thu., Jan. 6, 2028	Dec. 24 (observed)
PP26	Dec. 26-Jan. 8, 2028	Tue., Jan. 18, 2028	Thu., Jan. 20, 2028	Dec. 31 (observed)

Source: NFC Pay Period Calendar 2027; holidays from OPM’s federal holiday schedule. The 2026 pay periods 25 and 26 pay on Jan. 7 and Jan. 21, 2027, so an NFC-paid employee receives 26 official pay dates in calendar 2027. PP25 and PP26 of 2027 pay in January 2028. Pay period 26 starts Dec. 26, 2027.

Holidays that appear in the table: OPM’s 2027 list has Monday, Jan. 18 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), Monday, Feb. 15 (Washington’s Birthday), Monday, May 31 (Memorial Day), Friday, June 18 (Juneteenth, observed), Monday, July 5 (Independence Day, observed), Monday, Sept. 6 (Labor Day), Monday, Oct. 11 (Columbus Day), Thursday, Nov. 11 (Veterans Day), Thursday, Nov. 25 (Thanksgiving) and Friday, Dec. 24 (Christmas, observed). New Year’s Day 2028 falls on a Saturday, and OPM’s 2028 table lists Friday, Dec. 31, 2027 as the observed day. Our federal holidays 2027 list explains each move.

What we computed from the NFC calendar

• Three EFT dates fall on a Tuesday, and the Monday before each is a federal holiday: Feb. 16 (after Feb. 15), July 6 (after July 5) and Oct. 12 (after Oct. 11). Every other 2027 EFT date in the table is a Monday.
• Two official pay dates fall on federal holidays: Thursday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day, and Thursday, Nov. 25, Thanksgiving. NFC’s calendar lists them as the official pay dates; we found no NFC note on how those two are handled, so check with your agency’s payroll office. Use our Veterans Day and Thanksgiving pages for the dates.
• Pay periods with a holiday inside them: 11 of the 26 NFC pay periods of 2027 (PP01, PP03, PP11, PP12, PP13, PP18, PP20, PP22, PP23, PP25 and PP26) contain at least one federal holiday, counting Friday, Dec. 31, 2027, the observed New Year’s Day 2028, in PP26.

Which months have three pay dates in 2027?

The table sets NFC’s official pay dates beside those on the General Services Administration (GSA) 2027 payroll calendar, which has a different pay cycle.

Month	NFC official pay dates	GSA official pay dates
January	7, 21	20
February	4, 18	3, 17
March	4, 18	3, 17, 31
April	1, 15, 29	14, 28
May	13, 27	12, 26
June	10, 24	9, 23
July	8, 22	7, 21
August	5, 19	4, 18
September	2, 16, 30	1, 15, 29
October	14, 28	13, 27
November	11, 25	10, 24
December	9, 23	8, 22, 30

NFC has two months with three pay dates, April and September. GSA’s calendar has three: March, September and December. The two agencies pay on different weekdays, Thursday at NFC and Wednesday at GSA, according to their 2027 calendars.

Why NFC and GSA pay period numbers differ

GSA publishes its own 2027 payroll calendar, last updated Sept. 21, 2026, and its pay period numbers run one ahead of NFC’s. GSA labels the period ending Jan. 9 “Pay Period 1” (also the end of its 2026 leave year) and the period ending Jan. 23 “Pay Period 2”, which is NFC’s PP01 (Jan. 10-23). GSA’s “Pay Period 26 end, Q4 end” is Dec. 25, and it lists “2028 Pay Period 1 end” as Jan. 8, 2028.

2027 pay period ends	NFC number	GSA number
Jan. 9	PP26 of 2026	PP1
Jan. 23	PP01	PP2
Dec. 11	PP24	PP25
Dec. 25	PP25	PP26
Jan. 8, 2028	PP26	2028 PP1

If your pay stub says PP02 and the table above says PP01 for the same dates, the difference is the payroll provider, not an error. GSA also lists time card certification dates and its own EFT dates on its page; this story uses only its official pay dates and numbering. Defense civilians should check the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) civilian pay calendar or their agency’s payroll provider, because we did not check DFAS dates.

When does the 2027 leave year start?

OPM says the leave year “begins on the first day of the first full biweekly pay period in a calendar year,” and notes that “some agency payroll systems use a different pay period schedule.” OPM’s table gives these dates:

Leave year	Begins	Ends	Deadline to schedule “use or lose” annual leave
2026	Jan. 11, 2026	Jan. 9, 2027	Sat., Nov. 28, 2026
2027	Jan. 10, 2027	Jan. 8, 2028	Sat., Nov. 27, 2027

The 2026 scheduling deadline, Saturday, Nov. 28, is 32 days after Oct. 27, 2026. The 2027 leave year begins on the first day of NFC’s PP01. We did not confirm a carryover limit, so check your agency’s leave policy for it.

Related federal calendar stories

Pay dates move with the calendar year, so pair this sheet with the 2027 federal pay raise timeline and the 2026 federal open season dates, and keep a 2027 printable yearly calendar beside it. The free printable lists every NFC official pay date in 2027.