Paul Stein

wages (noun) (usually plural) – the money that employers pay to employees for work that they did (can be per hour, day or week). (Wages for a month is usually called salary.)

minimum wage (noun) – the lowest wage that is legal in a country to pay employees

living wage (noun) – a sum of money that a worker and his/her family can live on under basic conditions

Examples:

Workers were demonstrating against low wages.

Wages in my country are much lower than in the US. Workers are paid less, but costs are also lower.

– How does your company pay your wages? – I get paid by the hour.

Walmart has just announced it is paying $9 per hour, which is well above the minimum wage.

His new job in Singapore sounded like he got paid quite well, but life was so expensive there that it was actually beneath the living wage.

The problem is that housing got so expensive in our city that many families now don’t earn a living wage.