wage scale

American  

noun

1. a schedule of wages paid workers performing related tasks in an industry or shop.

2. a particular employer's wage schedule.

---

wage scale British  

noun

1. a schedule of wages paid to workers for various jobs in an industry, company, etc

2. an employer's schedule of wages

---

wage scale Cultural  

1. A schedule of the wages paid to different classes of workers in a company.

---

Etymology

Origin of wage scale

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Wages for this draft class are far from NFL records, as the league introduced a rookie wage scale in 2011 to keep salaries for its youngest players lower.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 23, 2026

The new wage scale puts East Coast dock workers on par with their West Coast counterparts, who inked a new contract last year.

From Salon • Oct. 4, 2024

The union has plans to propose a new wage scale that will impose minimums based on a production’s total budget.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 7, 2023

About a dozen union workers in the Philadelphia region Reuters spoke to questioned whether the new industries can produce a similar number of jobs at the same high wage scale.

From Reuters • Jul. 20, 2023

Soon blacks were gathered at Quinn Chapel, celebrating the first-ever wage scale in Chicago that gave equal pay to black and white waiters.

From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield