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.
With a salary of around $1,300, "there's no way I can pay $1,800 a month for rent on top of all my utilities and childcare," she said.
From Barron's
This includes not just your salary, but also any investment growth you could earn from continued contributions to your retirement accounts.
From MarketWatch
“I get paid by the hour. I’m not on salary like he is. Does he have any idea how much these meetings cost real people?” his aunt grumped as they crawled through rush-hour traffic.
From Literature
The school told BBC Scotland News it was closing for a number of factors, including a decline in the school roll and pressure on teacher salaries.
From BBC
The Dodgers won their second consecutive World Series last year with a star-studded roster that cost more than a half-billion dollars between payroll and luxury tax payments for those high salaries.
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.
