salary

American  

[sal-uh-ree] / ˈsæl ə ri /

noun

• salaries
  plural

1. a fixed compensation periodically paid to a person for regular work or services.

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salary British  

/ ˈsælərɪ /

noun

1. a fixed regular payment made by an employer, often monthly, for professional or office work as opposed to manual work Compare wage

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verb

1. (tr) to pay a salary to

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?

Synonym Usage

See pay ¹.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• salaryless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• salaries
  plural

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:

• stipend vs. salary

Explanation

The pay or wages you earn for doing your job is called your salary. You might prefer your low-paying job to one with a higher salary because you have so much fun with your co-workers. Salary comes from the Latin word salarium, which also means "salary" and has the root sal, or "salt." In ancient Rome, it specifically meant the amount of money allotted to a Roman soldier to buy salt, which was an expensive but essential commodity. Today, salt is an inexpensive purchase at the grocery store, and your salary is certainly to be paid in your country's currency.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

salary salaries

Under the proposed scheme, youngsters would be offered posts in the private sector, with the government paying half their salary.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

He doesn’t mind it, anyway, and he earns a nice salary.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

Paramount released details of Kreiz’s contract on Thursday in a regulatory filing, saying he would receive a $5-million annual salary and an annual target bonus of $4.9 million.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

Levi Strauss plans to pay him a base annual salary of $1.35 million, plus bonuses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

For these three-hour daily séances, Kate made the annual salary of $1,200, about eight times more than a female teacher earned in nineteenth-century New York City.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

They predict a short-term hit to the housing market as many mortgages rely on two incomes and housing has gotten more expensive relative to salaries, especially for buyers already stretched financially thin.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

Others insisted salaries should be cut during maternity leave.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

Public sector salaries vary by sector, but the union says the wage differences for educators are too wide and disadvantageous.

From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026

Only 10% derived most of their income from wages and salaries.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

To get a sense of how daunting that figure was, the value of the Centenary scholarship my aunt won was probably as much as the sum of my grandparents’ annual salaries.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Related Words

• earnings
• fee
• income
• pay
• payroll
• stipend
• wage