wage

A wage is the money someone earns for doing a job. You can picture a carpenter building a house or a barista making your coffee; both may be paid wages for their time and effort. In everyday English, people sometimes use it to mean pay in general, but it often refers to pay that is based on the number of hours worked, unlike a salary, which is usually a fixed amount paid regularly.

The word can also be a verb. People can wage a war, a campaign, or a fight, which means they carry it out in an active and determined way. Still, the most common use for many learners is the noun that refers to money earned from work.

A wage is money paid to a worker for the work they do. In many common cases, it is tied to hours worked, which is why people often talk about an hourly wage. This makes it a little different from a salary, which is usually a fixed amount paid on a regular schedule whether the person worked more or fewer hours in a given week. In everyday speech, though, people do sometimes use wage more broadly to mean pay.

You will often hear the word in phrases like "minimum wage," the lowest legal amount an employer can pay, and "living wage," an amount seen as enough to cover basic needs. The plural form, "wages," is also common when talking about a person's pay as a whole: someone may say they live on their wages or that wages have gone up. This is the core meaning that English learners are most likely to meet in news, work, and daily conversation.

The word also has a separate verb use. To wage something means to carry it on or fight it actively, especially in phrases like "wage war," "wage a campaign," or "wage a struggle." That use is common too, but it appears in a different kind of context from the noun about pay. So in one part of English, the word points to money earned from work; in another, it describes carrying on a serious effort or conflict.