Salary
The dictionary definition of a salary is a “fixed periodical payment made to a person doing other than manual or mechanical work.” So there is a clear element of occupational distinction between the terms “wage” and “salary”. Indeed, one judge at the end of the last century was prepared to say, “Salary is used for the payment of services of a higher class, and wages is defined to the earnings of labourers or artificers.”
Does the term salary have any precise legal connotations different from, say, wage? The answer is almost certainly yes. We have already seen that wages are paid to manual workers under the Truck Act, so right away we can see that those paid a salary will not be covered by the Act, unless their claim to staff status is in spite of the fact that their work is manual, rather than “brain” or clerical work (see Chap. 3) refers specifically to salaries, but omits any reference to wages. Therefore, the statutory protection extended to those on salaries under the Act may not cover wage-earners. Finally, cases decided in an earlier era under the common law, not statute, have left us with a legacy which treats manual workers as normally earning wages by hour, and salaried workers earning an indivisible yearly sum. Though the former may be paid weekly, and the latter monthly, this is only to be understood as a matter of convenience. This historical perspective may become important if there is a lay-off from work, for example, or if there were to be a repeat of the three-day week experienced in the winter of 1973-74.