Key Takeaways
- Active duty is paid the 1st and 15th, or the business day before a weekend or holiday.
- The first check with the 2027 raise is January 15, 2027; December 31, 2026 still pays 2026 rates.
- April, July and December 2027 each have three paydays; January, May and August have one.
- When the 1st isn't a business day, retirees are paid the day before and annuitants the day after.
Active duty troops get paid twice a month in 2027: on the 1st and the 15th. When either date lands on a weekend or a federal holiday, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) moves payday to the business day before, never after.
That one rule explains every “early” paycheck on the calendar below. I’ve worked through all 24 of them, plus the monthly retired pay and survivor annuity dates, because the holiday shifts in 2027 bunch up in a few spots that are easy to misread.
2027 Active Duty Pay Dates
Each payday covers half a month. The end-of-month check for a given month is dated the 1st of the following month, which is why March’s second check shows up on April 1.
| Month | Mid-month payday | End-of-month payday |
|---|---|---|
| January | Fri, Jan 15 | Mon, Feb 1 |
| February | Fri, Feb 12 (early) | Mon, Mar 1 |
| March | Mon, Mar 15 | Thu, Apr 1 |
| April | Thu, Apr 15 | Fri, Apr 30 (early) |
| May | Fri, May 14 (early) | Tue, Jun 1 |
| June | Tue, Jun 15 | Thu, Jul 1 |
| July | Thu, Jul 15 | Fri, Jul 30 (early) |
| August | Fri, Aug 13 (early) | Wed, Sep 1 |
| September | Wed, Sep 15 | Fri, Oct 1 |
| October | Fri, Oct 15 | Mon, Nov 1 |
| November | Mon, Nov 15 | Wed, Dec 1 |
| December | Wed, Dec 15 | Thu, Dec 30 (early) |
The last payday of 2026 also moves. January 1, 2027 is New Year’s Day, so the end-of-December check lands on Thursday, December 31, 2026.
December 30, 2027 is the one people will miss. January 1, 2028 falls on a Saturday, so the federal holiday is observed on Friday, December 31, and pay moves back one more day to Thursday. Your leave and earnings statement (LES) usually posts in myPay about a week ahead of each payday, and some banks and credit unions release military direct deposits a day or two early on top of that.
Where the Early Paydays Bunch Up
If you budget by calendar month, 2027 has an uneven rhythm. The early end-of-month checks pull a paycheck into the month before:
- Three paydays: April (Apr 1, 15, 30), July (Jul 1, 15, 30) and December (Dec 1, 15, 30).
- One payday: January (Jan 15), May (May 14) and August (Aug 13).
No money actually goes missing. The “extra” payday is simply next month’s first check arriving early.
Here’s where that trips people up. Say Maria, an E-5, gets her end-of-July check on Friday, July 30 and treats it as bonus money because July already had two paydays.
Her rent is due August 1, and her next deposit doesn’t arrive until August 13. That July 30 check is August’s rent money, and it helps to label it that way in your budget the day it lands.
When the 2027 Pay Raise Shows Up
The 2027 raise takes effect January 1, 2027, so the first paycheck at the new rates is the mid-month check on January 15, 2027. The December 31, 2026 deposit covers the second half of December and is still paid at 2026 rates.
As of late September, the operative raise is the tiered one President Trump set by presidential authority in August: 7% for E-1 through E-5, 6% for E-6 through O-3 and 5% for O-4 and above. Congress can still override it with a signed NDAA before year-end. I track that fight and the new charts in my 2027 military pay raise and pay charts post.
Get the 2027 military pay raise news by email
I post an update at each step: the NDAA votes, the final raise and the new pay charts. Get those updates free in your inbox.
Free. You’ll get my new posts, including these updates. Unsubscribe anytime, and check your spam folder for the confirmation email.
2027 Military Retired Pay and Survivor Annuity Dates
Retired pay and survivor annuities are paid once a month, on the 1st, for the month before. The weekend and holiday rule splits two ways, per the DFAS retiree pay schedule: retirees are paid the last business day before, while annuitants are paid the first business day after.
| Pay for | Retirees paid | Annuitants paid |
|---|---|---|
| December 2026 | Thu, Dec 31, 2026 | Mon, Jan 4, 2027 |
| January 2027 | Mon, Feb 1 | Mon, Feb 1 |
| February 2027 | Mon, Mar 1 | Mon, Mar 1 |
| March 2027 | Thu, Apr 1 | Thu, Apr 1 |
| April 2027 | Fri, Apr 30 | Mon, May 3 |
| May 2027 | Tue, Jun 1 | Tue, Jun 1 |
| June 2027 | Thu, Jul 1 | Thu, Jul 1 |
| July 2027 | Fri, Jul 30 | Mon, Aug 2 |
| August 2027 | Wed, Sep 1 | Wed, Sep 1 |
| September 2027 | Fri, Oct 1 | Fri, Oct 1 |
| October 2027 | Mon, Nov 1 | Mon, Nov 1 |
| November 2027 | Wed, Dec 1 | Wed, Dec 1 |
| December 2027 | Thu, Dec 30, 2027 | Mon, Jan 3, 2028 |
That split matters in households with both. Take Dave, a retired CW3, and his mother, who draws a Survivor Benefit Plan annuity from his late father’s service.
For April 2027, Dave’s retired pay arrives Friday, April 30, but his mother’s annuity doesn’t arrive until Monday, May 3. If her rent autopays on the 1st, she’ll want a small cushion in checking, or a quick call to move the draft date.
VA disability compensation follows the retiree rule, so for veterans drawing both, the two deposits land on the same day. My 2027 VA disability payment dates post has that calendar and the months with no VA deposit at all.
The 2027 COLA on Retired Pay
Military retired pay and survivor annuities get the same cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) as Social Security, effective December 1, 2026. That means the first deposit with the raise is the December 31, 2026 payment for retirees and January 4, 2027 for annuitants.
The official number comes out October 14, 2026, with current estimates around 3.5%. I cover how it’s calculated in my 2027 Social Security COLA tracker, and VA compensation moves by the same percentage (see my VA disability rates by rating for the dollar table).
Common Issues to Watch Out For
- Treating an early check as extra money. The April 30, July 30 and December 30 deposits belong to the following month. This is the question I get most around the holidays.
- Looking for the raise in December. Active duty won’t see 2027 rates until January 15. Retirees see the COLA earlier, on December 31, because retired pay runs a month behind.
- Expecting annuitant pay on the retiree date. Survivor annuities shift later, not earlier, so the January, May, August and next January dates all land after the 1st.
- Forgetting shutdown risk. Congress’s stopgap funding runs through December 11, 2026. During the fall 2025 shutdown, the Pentagon moved money between accounts to keep troops paid on schedule, but that took emergency action. A few weeks of expenses in a high-yield savings account is the simplest hedge. Retired pay is paid from a separate trust fund and isn’t affected by a shutdown the same way.
- Missing TSP changes at the new year. New 2027 contribution elections and limits kick in with the first January paycheck, so January 15 is when to check your LES. My 401(k), 403(b), 457(b) and TSP limits comparison has the numbers.
Looking Ahead: 2028 Outlook
The same rules carry into 2028, so the dates are predictable. New Year’s Day 2028 is observed on Friday, December 31, 2027, which is why that year’s final end-of-month check lands on December 30.
What’s still open is the size of the 2028 raise. By law it defaults to the Employment Cost Index formula unless the President or Congress sets something different, and the first real signal will be the Pentagon’s fiscal 2028 budget request in early 2027.
I’ll update this page once DFAS confirms its 2028 calendar and as the 2028 raise takes shape. The full list of observed holidays behind these shifts is on OPM’s federal holidays page.
