salary

[sal-uh-ree]

noun

plural

salaries 

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

salary

/ 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

verb

1. (tr) to pay a salary to

Other Word Forms

• salaryless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of salary¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of salary¹

C14: from Anglo-Norman salarie, from Latin salārium the sum given to Roman soldiers to buy salt, from sal salt

Synonym Study

See pay ¹.

Example Sentences

Anchor Gayle King’s contract is up early next year and the network might look for a cheaper alternative to her roughly $15 million annual salary, a person familiar with the matter said.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

To afford a median-priced home in their area, today’s rural home buyers would need to make an annual salary of $75,000.

Read more on MarketWatch

The new pay structure, approved 16-1, scraps a previous policy that limited the salary of a newly hired president to no more than 10% above their predecessor.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Student-to-faculty ratios have worsened, and student support programs and faculty salaries have not kept up with university goals — in addition to growing backlogs of deferred campus maintenance.

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Mary Matteucci, director of A Child’s Garden in Albuquerque, said salaries and benefits already account for 90% of the preschool’s expenses.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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

When To Use

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?