Have you seen this story about how Philippino women ended a violent fight by going on a sex strike?

Quote from video (about 2 minutes in): "If you don't agree with me, you have no salary from me."
Gives a whole new meaning to salary, doesn't it?

IIRC, Jean Auel used a similar idea in Clan of The Cave Bear. She used the term, "tasted her salt" for oral sex.

Very interesting, Tinman. I looked up "salary" in dictionary.com and then in the OED and didn't find anything similar...though I did find this in the OED that I was not aware of:

quote:

Fixed payment made periodically to a person as compensation for regular work: now usually restricted to payments made for non-manual or non-mechanical work (as opposed to wages).From c1390 to c1520 commonly applied to the stipend of a priest, esp. a chantry priest.

I didn't realize "salary" is only meant for "non-manual" work. For example, a gardener would receive a "wage" and not a "salary?" Is "wage" generally hourly payment? Even so, I know some gardeners that are paid a salary (such as $60,000 a year). Or am I interpreting "salary" and "wage" wrong.

It always irritates me no end that nurses who work in hospitals are paid hourly. I think they should be salaried.

Yes, a "salaried" employee is usually one engaged in non-manual work, usually on a contract. "Wages" are paid to manual workers, who are usually, but not always, on an hourly rate. It's the distinction between the "middle classes" and "lower classes" again, or perhaps between "white collar" and "blue collar" work in the USA. A salary is (or at least it was) paid directly into the worker's bank account, or by cheque, often monthly. Wages are/were often paid in cash, generally weekly. Recently, though, more and more workers are paid by methods other than cash because of security concerns and it's cheaper for the employers.

There is however quite a lot of blurring of the lines. For example, is a car worker on a fully automated production line actually a manual worker if s/he mostly monitors progress on a computer screen and presses certain keys as needed? Is there much difference between that job and that of an office worker?

Interestingly, the word "salary" comes from a Roman soldier's allowance for salt, salarium; I would have thought that a soldier was a pretty good example of a manual worker.

At least in my experience, a salaried worker is one whose compensation is NOT based on hours worked but whose pay is guaranteed even when the employee doesn't work a full 40-hour week. It's a way for employers to keep necessary employees available but it's also a way to get them to work more hours for less compensation (no overtime pay) than an hourly worker would receive.

But, Americans, do we use salary and wage the way arnie describes? I don't think it's as cut and dry here in the states, though I have been wrong here before.

So, all the rich folks go to heaven and the poor folks go to hell, according to the christian book of Romans: "...the wages of sin is death," so says the King James version. Since James was rich he didn't say, "salary."

I can't speak for all Americans, but where I work, everyone earns a salary, even the hourly employees. The difference is whether an employee is Exempt (can work more than 40 hours and not be paid overtime, would not be in the bargaining unit if we were to unionize, God Forbid) and Non-Exempt (strict hours they must work each week, paid by the hour and earn overtime if they work more than 40 in a week).

My own supervisor subscribes to the "don't pay overtime" rule, but requires, also, that I, as an Exempt employee, use Paid Time Off (vacation time) for even 15 minutes of un-worked time under 40 hours. Nice how that works out for the library, isn't it?

I will also point out, however, that I will NEVER have sex with my supervisor (the woman I have now). I don't even want to talk to her most of the time. ;-) I hear that for some people talking isn't part of the act, but for me, talking is a part of EVERYthing!

I can't believe that you have to take vacation time for 15 minutes of un-worked time. How would they even know??

It's interesting how these threads meander, isn't it? Sex with your supervisor? I won't touch that one with a 10 foot pole, except to say, I've never had a "supervisor." At least in my line of work, we don't call them that. It might be a CEO or manager or boss, but not a "supervisor."

It does seem to me that the "salary"/"wage" distinction is more a British one.

quote:

Originally posted by Caterwauller:
... I will NEVER have sex with my supervisor ... .

Interesting, CW, but why did you feel the need to tell us that?

And then to overemphasize "NEVER"! Methinks thou doest protest too much.

I agree with Arnie and Proof that, generally, salary refers to the amount of pay received in a year regardless of hours worked, while wage is the money received per hour of work. Thus, if a wage-earner received $25 per hour, he would earn $52,000 in a year ($25/hour x 40 hours/week x 52 weeks/year), and any time worked in excess of 40 hours per week would be paid at an overtime rate, generally time and a half. A person with an annual salary of $52,000 would receive that amount if he worked a 30-hour week, 40-hour week, or a 60-hour week.

In the USA "white collar" workers generally receive a salary, while "blue collar" workers usually receive wages.

Wikipedia says:

quote:

A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis.

and, further on:

quote:

In the United States, the distinction between periodic salaries (which are normally paid regardless of hours worked) and hourly wages (meeting a minimum wage test and providing for overtime) was first codified by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

Companies often like to "promote" hard-working employees to "managers," give them a slight pay increase, a few percs, and then work them 60 + hours per week. They may even give them a "bonus" at the end of the year, often a "Christmas bonus." This seems to be common in low-paying fast-food and retail jobs.

The promoted worker gets an ego-boost, feeling superior because he is now a manager, not realizing he has just been screwed. He gets added responsibilities, works 60+ hours a week, is constantly on call, and receives less money.

For example, a person earning $10 per hour would receive a whopping $20,800 a year, assuming no overtime. Take that same person, promote him to manager, raise his pay to $30,000 a year (about $14.42/hour), give him a Christmas "bonus" of $3000 (10% of salary), and work him 60 hours per week.

The person earning $10/hour who worked 60 hours/week would earn $20,800 base pay + $15,600 overtime pay, for a total of $36,400. The manager, who would have far greater responsibilities, would receive $33,000.

So, the employee who is promoted to manager is actually demoted in pay.

Salary is often used nowadays to mean a person's annual base earnings, whether it's a true salary or a wage. Salaried workers are often called "exempt," meaning exempt from overtime pay, and wage-earners are called "non-exempt."

quote:

I agree with Arnie and Proof that, generally, salary refers to the amount of pay received in a year regardless of hours worked, while wage is the money received per hour of work.

quote:

Salary is often used nowadays to mean a person's annual base earnings, whether it's a true salary or a wage. Salaried workers are often called "exempt," meaning exempt from overtime pay, and wage-earners are called "non-exempt."

Well, it must be a lot like " vegetarian " then...people use the terms salary and wage differently. Just today I read this interesting article about "wages."

quote:

Average starting wage for social media jobs, according to the jobs search site Simply Hired, is about $55,000.

quote:

Average starting wage for social media jobs, according to the jobs search site Simply Hired, is about $55,000.

They should have used "salary" there, I assume. Otherwise the those people would be starting on annual pay of around $2,860,000. Not bad!

I usually have to think for a moment when I try to relate the reported huge sums paid to many professional footballers. Their wages are £X thousand per week when I don't make anything like that much in a year, usually by an order of magnitude!

[Edited to correct multiple typos]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

I guess one should take the term, "salary" with a pinch of salt.

quote:

They should have used "salary" there, I assume.

No. My point is, arnie, that we use "wage" that way in parts of the U.S. I say "parts of" because apparently they don't use it that way in the northwest, where Tinman is and Geoff used to be...or in the northeast, where Proof is. Geoff, here in the midwest we use it both ways. Sorry we're so confusing!

By the way, when I look up "annual wage" in Google, I find more than 700,000 hits. This is the first; it is the government's national "annual wage" index.

Sorry, folks. I won't budge on this one.

The distinction I've heard is between hourly and salaried. And since I've been salaried, I have also been exempt (from working overtime). The only time I've heard about wages (officially) is about the federal and state guaranteed minimum wage (which is quoted in hourly form). (For me, salary is cited in yearly form and wages in hourly.) In my experience, people who make minimum wage are exempt. For some casual reading you might google FSLA (Fair Labor Standards Act).

From your last post, Kalleh, "wage" (singular) appears to be used as a synonym for "pay", So "annual wage" might mean the person's weekly or hourly wages multiplied to give a yearly figure or it might relate to a salaried person, who is paid on a yearly rate anyway.

"Salary," "pay," whatever. The governmental site certainly wasn't referring to the minimum wage since it stated the minimum annual wage is "40,711.61."

Once again, to some of us, in this fair English-speaking world, wage and salary aren't all that different. I will admit that to others, they are different.

quote:

wage and salary aren't all that different.

Wage, as I said before, is sometimes used to mean pay. When qualified by "annual" it equates to salary. Wages (plural) is different.

Oy vey. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I just don't think it is as cut and dry as you do.