Pay 2

We all go to work to earn money. Let’s look at more vocabulary to talk about our salaries:

‘gross salary’ is the salary before anything is deducted for contributions and tax.

Her gross salary is £50 000 but obviously she takes home considerably less than that.
He earns £40 000 a year gross.

‘net salary’ is the salary that you are paid after deductions have made

My gross salary is around £60 000 but the net is around £48 000.
The net salary is the gross salary minus the deductions the employer makes for contributions and tax.

‘deductions’ are payments made by the employer for an employee to health and pension schemes based on the gross salary.

Although my gross salary seems good, after deductions, I haven’t very much left.
The details of the deductions are on your pay statement. You can see what you are paying.

‘income tax’ is the tax which is paid on the money you earn.

In the UK, income tax is deducted directly from your salary and paid to the state.
In some countries, you have to complete an income tax return annually to calculate the tax to be paid.

‘rate’ is the amount you are paid per hour, week or month of work.

I don’t know what the standard rate is for this type of work.
Some people are paid on piece rate. They are paid by their output, not by the time it takes.

The ‘basic state pension’ is the money paid on retirement to everyone who has paid contributions for the required number of years.

Although I contribute to the state pension fund, I also pay into a private one too.
The basic state pension is very low, too low for a decent standard of living.

The ‘national minimum wage’ is the minimum an employee can be paid per hour of work.

Everyone here is paid a rate that is better than the minimum wage.
The national minimum wage varies according to age. Young people are paid less than adults.

The ‘equal pay’ law states that employers must pay the same to men and women who are doing the same or similar jobs.

Equal pay for women is the law but many are still paid less than their male colleagues.
Each year, there are many cases where women take their employer to court to fight for equal pay.

‘overtime’ is a higher rate of pay for working more than the usual hours or unsocial hours.

A ‘bonus’ is an extra amount of money paid as a reward on top of your fixed salary.

We usually get a bonus at Christmas depending on how well the company has done.
Every year, usually in January, we receive a bonus. It is a discretionary bonus related to your performance.