salary

Word family

• salaried
  adjectiveB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words refer to money received, but each has a distinct scope. Salary (薪水／薪資) is a fixed annual amount paid monthly to professional or office workers — for example, a teacher's or engineer's salary. Wages (工資) are paid by the hour or day, usually to manual or service workers, such as a cashier's wages. Pay is the most general term and can replace either salary or wages in everyday language (e.g., 'get paid', 'pay day', 'pay cheque'). Earnings is a broader, more formal term that includes salary, wages, freelance income, and bonuses. Income is the widest term, covering all money received from any source — salary, investments, rental properties, government benefits, and more. For example: 'Her annual salary is NT$800,000, but her total income is NT$1,200,000 because she also runs a small online shop.'

Common collocations

Etymology

Salary traces back to the Latin word salarium, which originally meant 'money given to Roman soldiers to buy salt' (sal is Latin for 'salt'). Salt was a valuable commodity in the ancient world, so the link between pay and salt became deeply rooted. The word travelled into English through French in the 14th century, gradually taking on its modern meaning of fixed regular pay for work.