salaries

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of salary.

   Public-sector salaries lagged behind inflation for most of the decade.

   Negotiators argued over starting salaries for the new graduates.

   Note

   A regular plural: a consonant plus -y becomes -ies. The word keeps its contrast with wages in the plural. Salaries are fixed sums reckoned by the month or year and suggest professional, more autonomous work, while wages are usually counted by the hour. The same spelling also serves as the verb form, so a firm salaries its staff while the staff draw salaries.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of salary.

   Note

   A noun turned into a transitive verb. Its object is whoever, or whatever post, is put on fixed pay counted by the week or longer. The verb usually marks a change of arrangement, moving someone from hourly or other compensation to a set sum, so it fits naturally beside phrases like instead of paying by the hour. Read aloud, it is indistinguishable from the plural noun, so only the sentence tells them apart.

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