salary
Americannoun
plural
salariesnoun
verb
Usage
What is a salary? A salary is a fixed, regular payment in exchange for work. This is different from earning a fee that depends on how many hours you work (earning a fixed rate per hour) or how much work you do, sometimes called piecework.When you earn a salary, it is usually stated as the amount of money you will receive in one year for doing the work (before any taxes are paid). You will then be paid in equal amounts each pay period over the course of that year, even when you are on a paid vacation. How often you are paid will vary from company to company, with every other week and twice a month being most common.To salary someone is to pay them a salary. A salaried employee is someone who is paid a salary instead of paid another way, such as paid by the hour.Example: How can they expect me to live my best life when I’m paid on such a low salary?
Related Words
See pay 1.
Other Word Forms
- salaryless adjective
Etymology
Origin of salary
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English salarie, from Anglo-French, from Latin salārium “money given to soldiers to buy salt, salt money.” See sal, -ary
Compare meaning
How does salary compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It pays the equivalent of about 19% of teacher salaries to the state pension fund.
Epstein replied the next day: “Start salary as soon as possible.”
Money is crucial to the group's grip on power: to pay salaries – and, the Israeli army alleges, for its ultimate goal of rebuilding its war machine.
From BBC
On what looms as the core bargaining issue — the potential adoption of a salary cap — Clark and Meyer were aligned.
From Los Angeles Times
A common strategy is to avoid salaries, which are heavily taxed.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
