What is the money called that is paid in addition to your salary?

What Is Basic Salary?

Basic salary, also called base salary, is the amount of money a salaried employee regularly earns before any additions or deductions are applied to their earnings. 

Additions and deductions to basic salary can significantly affect the size of an employee’s paycheck. These adjustments may include such things as added bonuses or deductions for the employee’s company health insurance premium.

How Is Basic Salary Calculated and Paid?

Salaried workers receive the same fractional amount of their annual basic salary every payday. To determine the amount, their annual basic salary is divided by the number of pay periods in a year at that company. For example, if the company pays workers twice each month, there will be twenty-four paydays in a year and the employee will receive one twenty-fourth of their annual basic salary on each payday.

What Is the Difference Between Basic Salary and Hourly Pay?

Employees who are paid a basic salary receive a fixed amount each pay period regardless of how many hours they work. In contrast, employees who receive hourly pay are compensated for the number of hours they work. Unlike most salaried workers, hourly workers are generally also entitled to overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours in a week.

Fast, easy, and accurate payroll with BambooHR®.

Pay your U.S.-based employees on time, every time.

What Is the Difference Between Basic Salary, Gross Earnings, and Net Wages?

Each of these terms tells a different part of the story of an employee’s compensation. Unlike basic salary, gross earnings and net wages take into account additions and subtractions to an employee’s standard rate of pay:

  • Gross earnings include the basic salary plus all additional money earned, such as sales commissions and bonuses. 

  • Net wages means take-home pay—the amount on the paycheck after the employee’s gross earnings have been totaled and all taxes and other deductions have been subtracted from that figure.

For example, Jamal is hired by a company that agrees to pay him 4,000 dollars per month. That is his basic salary. When he receives his first monthly paycheck, he sees that he has also been paid a 1,000-dollar hiring bonus, so his gross earnings for the month total 5,000 dollars. After his employer withheld federal, state, and local taxes on that amount, along with Jamal’s share of the cost of his employee benefits, the remaining amount shown on his paycheck is 3,950 dollars. That amount is his net wages. 

Can Basic Salary Change?

Basic salary may go up or, in some cases, be reduced. Many jobs have a salary range—a minimum and maximum amount that a company is willing to pay to fill a position. The salary range is based on market rates for that work as well as the experience and skills of the employee. A new hire with little experience might be paid the minimum amount in that salary range as their basic salary. As the worker gains more experience and improves their skills over time, they may receive raises in their basic salary and eventually reach the maximum pay for their position.

Reductions in basic salary are less common. They may result from company belt-tightening in difficult economic times. Companies are free to reduce an employee’s basic salary unless there is a formal employment contract that requires a specified salary to continue. But in the absence of a contract, employees are also free to leave the company instead of accepting a lower basic salary.

Payroll

Fast, easy, accurate payroll. It's as simple as that.

Earnings are the amount of money you make from doing a job. You'll be a lot more excited about babysitting when you learn your earnings will be more than generous.

Most earnings come from work that you've done, although money you earn from an investment can also be called earnings. Any financial profit or gain you make go into the earnings category, since you earn that money, whether through work, luck, or intelligence. The Proto-Germanic root, *aznon, means "do harvest work."

Definitions of earnings

  1. noun

    something that remunerates

    “they saved a quarter of all their earnings

    synonyms: pay, remuneration, salary, wage

  2. noun

    the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses)

    synonyms: lucre, net, net income, net profit, profit, profits

    see moresee less

    types:show 15 types...hide 15 types... earning per share

    the portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock

    windfall profit

    profit that occurs unexpectedly as a consequence of some event not controlled by those who profit from it

    cleanup, killing

    a very large profit

    fast buck, quick buck

    quick or easy earnings, "they are traders out to make a fast buck"

    filthy lucre

    shameful profit

    gross profit, gross profit margin, margin

    (finance) the net sales minus the cost of goods and services sold

    markup

    the amount added to the cost to determine the asking price

    accumulation

    (finance) profits that are not paid out as dividends but are added to the capital base of the corporation

    dividend

    that part of the earnings of a corporation that is distributed to its shareholders; usually paid quarterly

    fund, stock, store

    a supply of something available for future use

    backlog, reserve, stockpile

    something kept back or saved for future use or a special purpose

    stock dividend

    a dividend paid in stock rather than in cash

    extra dividend

    a dividend paid in addition to the regular dividend

    equalizing dividend

    a dividend paid to compensate shareholders for losses resulting from a change in the dividend schedule

    divvy

    short for dividend; especially one paid by a cooperative society

    type of: income

    the financial gain (earned or unearned) accruing over a given period of time

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.

Get started

What is an extra payment called?

bonus. noun. extra money that you are paid in addition to your usual salary.

What is another word for money paid to employees?

Some common synonyms of pay are compensate, indemnify, recompense, reimburse, remunerate, repay, and satisfy.

What is money paid as compensation called?

Another name for monetary compensation is compensation money. Generally, monetary compensation is paid to an employee in the context of employment because of providing services in the form of labor to their employer.

What is included in remuneration?

Remuneration will include: salary, fee, bonus, wage, gratuity, pension, leave encashment, emolument, voluntary award, commission, annuity, stipend, overtime, superannuation allowance, retirement allowance, lump sum benefit payment, director's remuneration, etc.