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A wage is a compensation, usually financial, received by a worker in exchange
Coincidence of wants

The coincidence of wants problem is an important category of transaction costs that impose severe limitations on economies lacking money and thus dominated by barter or other in-kind transactions....
 for their labor.

Compensation in terms of wages is given to worker and compensation in terms of salary is given to employees. Compensation is a monetary benefits given to employees in returns of the services provided by them.
nding on the structure and traditions of different economies around the world, wage rates are either the product of market forces (Supply and Demand
Supply and demand

...
), as is common in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, or wage rates may be influenced by other factors such as tradition, social structure and seniority, as in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
.

Several countries have enacted a statutory
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
 minimum wage
Minimum wage

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily, or monthly wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labor....
 rate that sets a price floor
Price floor

A price floor is a government- or group-imposed limit on how low a price can be charged for a product. In order for a price floor to be effective, it must be greater than the equilibrium price....
 for certain kinds of labor.

age derives from words which suggest "making a promise," often in monetary
Money

Money is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts. The main uses of money are as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value....
 form.






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A wage is a compensation, usually financial, received by a worker in exchange
Coincidence of wants

The coincidence of wants problem is an important category of transaction costs that impose severe limitations on economies lacking money and thus dominated by barter or other in-kind transactions....
 for their labor.

Compensation in terms of wages is given to worker and compensation in terms of salary is given to employees. Compensation is a monetary benefits given to employees in returns of the services provided by them.

Determinants of wage rates

Depending on the structure and traditions of different economies around the world, wage rates are either the product of market forces (Supply and Demand
Supply and demand

...
), as is common in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, or wage rates may be influenced by other factors such as tradition, social structure and seniority, as in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
.

Several countries have enacted a statutory
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
 minimum wage
Minimum wage

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily, or monthly wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labor....
 rate that sets a price floor
Price floor

A price floor is a government- or group-imposed limit on how low a price can be charged for a product. In order for a price floor to be effective, it must be greater than the equilibrium price....
 for certain kinds of labor.

Etymology

Wage derives from words which suggest "making a promise," often in monetary
Money

Money is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts. The main uses of money are as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value....
 form. Specifically from the Old French word wagier or gagier meaning to pledge or promise, from which the money placed in a bet (wager) also derives. These in turn may derive from the French gage to wager, the Gothic wadi, or the Late Latin wadium, also meaning "a pledge".

Wages in the United States

In the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, wages for most workers are set by market forces
Supply and demand

...
, or else by collective bargaining
Collective bargaining

Collective bargaining is the process whereby workers organize together to meet, converse, and compromise upon the work environment with their employers....
, where a labor union negotiates on the workers' behalf. Although states and cities can and sometimes do set a minimum wage
Minimum wage

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily, or monthly wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labor....
, the Fair Labor Standards Act
Fair Labor Standards Act

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 , also called the Wages and Hours Bill, is United States federal law that applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or...
 requires a minimum wage at the federal level. For certain federal or state government contacts, employers must pay the so-called prevailing wage
Prevailing wage

A prevailing wage is the median wage paid to workers in a specified locality....
 as determined according to the Davis-Bacon Act
Davis-Bacon Act

The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 is a United States federal law which established the requirement for paying prevailing wages on public works projects....
 or its state equivalent. Activists have undertaken to promote the idea of a living wage rate
Living wage

Living wage is a term used to describe the minimum hourly wage necessary for a person to achieve some specific standard of living. In developed countries such as the United Kingdom or Switzerland, this standard generally means that a person working forty hours a week, with no additional income, should be able to afford a specified quality or...
 which would be higher than current minimum wage laws require.

See also

  • Compensation of employees
    Compensation of employees

    Compensation of employees is a statistical term used in national accounts, Balance of Payments statistics and sometimes in corporate accounts as well....
  • Employee benefit
    Employee benefit

    Employee benefits and benefits in kind are various non-wage compensations provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salary....
     (non-monetary compensation in exchange for labor)
  • Employment
    Employment

    Employment is a contract between two party , one being the #Employer and the other being the #Employee. An employee may be defined as: "A person in the Service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral contract or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and Management the employee i...
  • Labour in Economics
  • Labour power
    Labor power

    Labour power is a crucial concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of capitalism political economy. He regarded labour power as the most important of the productive forces....
  • Performance-related pay
    Performance-related pay

    Performance-related pay is money paid to someone relating to how well he or she works at the workplace. Car salesmen, production line workers, for example, may be paid in this way, or through commission ....
  • Proletarian
  • Wage labour
    Wage labour

    Wage labour is the socioeconomics relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their Manual labour under a contract , and the employer buys it, often in a labour market.It is the effort that people devote to a task for which they are paid The products of labour become the employer's property....
  • Wage share
    Wage share

    The wage share is the ratio between compensation of employees and one of the following variables:#gross domestic product at market prices#gross domestic product at factor cost....
  • Wage slavery
    Wage slavery

    Wage slavery refers to a situation where a person is dependent for a livelihood on the wages earned, especially if the dependency is total and immediate....
  • Working class
    Working class

    Working class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in specific fields or types of work....


External links

- click Chapter 8 , American Wage Checker - Critical of capitalism - Different laws by State - Compensation information for jobs in the United States - and online calculator for calculating your pay - Link to Fair Labor Practices - Link to An Article Abouth How Wages are measured and Current Standards for Mining Professionals - Data on average wages in Central Europe and in Emerging Markets