salary
- wages
Salary and wages are both used to refer to the money paid to someone regularly for the work they do.
‘salary’
Professional people such as teachers are usually paid a salary. Their salary is the total amount of money that they are paid each year, although this is paid in twelve parts, one each month.
She earns a high salary as an accountant.
My salary is paid into my bank account at the end of the month.
‘wages’
If someone gets money each week for the work they do, you refer to this money as their wages.
On Friday afternoon the men are paid their wages.
He was working shifts at the factory and earning good wages.
‘wage’
You can refer in a general way to the amount that someone earns as a wage.
It is hard to bring up children on a low wage.
The government introduced a legal minimum wage.
You can also talk about someone's hourly, weekly, or monthly wage to mean the money that they earn each hour, week, or month.
Her hourly wage had gone up from £5.10 to £5.70.
The suit cost £40, more than twice the average weekly wage at that time.
