English, baby!

Pay and salary

Date: Oct 04 2007

Topic: Business English

Author: rhyme_reason

Lesson

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.

When I work on Sundays, I am paid overtime.
I do a lot more hours than in my contract but I don't get paid overtime.

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.

'commission' is paid to people in sales based on the amounts of goods sold.

Working here I get paid a fixed salary and commission based on my sales.
I get paid a commission on the deals I negotiate.

People who are 'hourly paid' are paid a fixed rate for each hour that they work and not a fixed salary for a year or task.

He isn't a salaried employee, he is hourly paid.
For everyone who is hourly paid, wages are paid weekly.

'benefits' are the extras that you are given by your employer on top of your salary. These may include private health insurance, a private pension, company car.

Although my gross salary is not high for the sector, I get a lot of extra benefits.
He has a very good benefits package including a car and private health insurance.

A 'taxable benefit' is a benefit which is considered as part of your income and therefore included in the income to be declared for tax.

The value of the company car is included in my income. It is a taxable benefit.
Meals in the canteen, drinks and parking are generally not taxable benefits.

'expenses' are the costs that you incur doing your job that are reimbursed by the company, notably for travel.

When I travel, I pay for my tickets and hotels and then claim my expenses back.
The company is very strict about expenses. We can't spend more than a certain amount on hotels or meals.

In order to claim expenses, you must keep all 'receipts' for payments you have made.

On the 30th of the month, we hand in all our receipts for our expenses.
When I take someone to lunch I always have to get a receipt so that I'll be reimbursed.

If you use your own car to travel to another location for your work, you may be able to claim 'mileage' ands be reimbursed a fixed rate per mile travelled to cover the cost.

It is better for the company to pay mileage than provide company cars.
There is a fixed rate for mileage depending on the size of the car.

a 'pay review' is when salaries are considered for changes.

The unions are preparing for the negotiations in the annual pay review.
A lot of changes to pay grades are being considered during the pay review. When the company closed the branch, the redundancy pay was very generous.

'redundancy pay' is given if you lose your job and are made redundant. This is usually related to the time you have worked for the company.

When I lost my job, I used my redundancy pay to set up my own company.
When the company closed the branch, the redundancy pay was very generous.

'notice', specified in the terms of your contract, is the time worked between telling your employer that you are leaving your job and actually leaving.

I have to work out two months notice before I can start my new job.
When I left, I was paid my notice but I didn't have to work it.

When you are ill and unable to work, you may claim statutory sick pay. This is the minimum by law.

If you have a work contract, you can claim statutory sick pay from your first day of work.
When I was ill, I claimed statutory sick pay which was much less than my salary.

The time that the doctor signs you off for is the period of that you cannot work.

The doctor has signed me off for two weeks.
I was off sick but the doctor didn’t sign me off until the second week.

When you are off work, to claim sick pay, you must provide a sick note from your doctor.

The doctor gave me a sick note to give to my employer.
If you want to claim sick pay, you must see your doctor for a sick note.

When you are no longer able to work through illness, you can claim incapacity benefit to replace your salary.

He will not be able to return to work and should now claim incapacity benefit.
Stress has now replaced back pain as the main reason that people are unable to work and claim incapacity benefit.

An employer can pay occupational sick pay, that is pay more than the minimum sick pay for a certain time depending on the terms of contract.

I haven't worked here long enough, so I don’t qualify for occupational sick pay.
In some companies, occupational sick pay makes up your full salary for up to one month.

The minimum period of service is the time you have to have worked before you qualify for occupational sick pay.

There is no minimum period of service to qualify for statutory sick pay.
The minimum period of service to qualify for occupational sick pay is three months.

If you also qualify for occupational sick pay, you may be off on full pay.

I have excellent fringe benefits. If I am off sick, I am on full pay for one month.
Unfortunately I am not on full pay now as I have been off work too long.

When a woman is expecting a baby, she can take maternity leave and have maternity pay.

I can take twenty-six weeks leave with maternity pay and twenty six weeks unpaid.
To qualify for maternity pay, I have to have worked for twenty-six weeks for my employer when I am expecting my baby.

If a father wishes to stop work to help with a new born child, he may qualify for paternity pay while he is absent from his job.

After twenty-six weeks working here, you can take two weeks leave with paternity pay.
To qualify for paternity pay, leave must be taken when the child is born or very soon after.