Wage or Salary?

[ColoradoTeamsOverOhio3249]

Basically, guess my question is: What is a better alternative or choice for when you go to work? Would you prefer “Working on an Hourly Wage/Basis”? Or “Earning A Salary”??? I know the difference between the two! (I think), I believe Wage is what it is. You get paid for every hour on the clock you are at work? But Salary: I believe is you agree to a lump sum? Like say, 100K a Year? And they pay you pretty much 100,000/Divided by 12 and you pretty much are making 8,333 a month in order to meet the 100K a year requirement? And also for salary, that is what you make? So you could be working overtime or working like 50/60+ hours a week but the pay stays the same?

So that’s my question for you? Say you are being interviewed or asked “Would you prefer to work for a wage? Or Earn a Salary?” In your opinion, what way of payment or living do you think would be wiser or smartest choice??! Thank You!!!

 

[oxat622]

If it's a desk job, or one where the schedule stays consistent, salary.

If overtime, or being mobile is part of it, wage.

I had a salary job once that was mostly office but had a lot of weekend and evening responsibilities in events and department programming. We got earned/equal time off. An hour worked in the evening = an hour added to PTO.

 

[Zunardo]

We are talking about actual company employees, correct? I'm not as familiar with the private sector, but I would think this isn't a common option in today's business world. Your FLSA job classification determines that, far as I know.

Sounds more like you're asking the person "Would you like to be a salaried employee with benefits and less overall compensation and go home on time, or would you like to be a contractor with a higher overall compensation but be available to us 24/7?"

 

[soccerdad72]

I've only had salaried positions, so I have no basis of comparison. Most professional positions tend to be salaried versus hourly.

While there have been weeks when I'm working much more than 40 hours, but the benefit of being salaried is that when I've needed to take off early, nobody usually cares (as long as the work is getting done).

 

[Sykotyk]

Hourly, you're selling your time. Salary, you're selling your skills.

If you can do more in less time, salary is where it's at. If they think they can just 'dump more work on you' because you finish your other work early, then you either want to switch to hourly or just manage your time before 'finishing' your work so they don't dump more free work on you.

The big issue is how often your 'goals' have deadlines. If you work for weeks on one thing and then finish it, you want salary.

 

[Thavoice]

Full rime job I have is hourly, don't get OT pay but instead it's considered comp time so if I add that to my vacation time I can accumulate what I feel is a healthy amount of time off, and personally time off is more important than a Lil more jangle in my pocket.
Part time.job is salary tho...sometimes it's a 8 hr shift, sometimes it's 10-24hrs so there is that.

 

[14Red]

There are legal classifications for all jobs and it's being debated everyday. Basically if an is in charge of other employees, or has some authority some others, they usually can be classified as salary. Salary means there is an amount you get weekly/ bi-weekly regardless of the number of hours worked, no overtime.
This is an issue many times in the service jobs, restaurant managers, department managers who some would rather be hourly because they are working 45-50-60 hours weekly. Overtimes makes them more money. Of course it also wrecks budgets.

 

[chs1971]

Hourly, you're selling your time. Salary, you're selling your skills.

If you can do more in less time, salary is where it's at. If they think they can just 'dump more work on you' because you finish your other work early, then you either want to switch to hourly or just manage your time before 'finishing' your work so they don't dump more free work on you.

The big issue is how often your 'goals' have deadlines. If you work for weeks on one thing and then finish it, you want salary.

Not really. Some people's skills aren't worth $15 an hour, others are clearly worth $80 and hour.

 

[Abdul]

I chose to run my own business, Do you know POD? I work with PrintKK to sell some DIY products

 

[D4fan]

When I was young, I worked several hourly trade jobs. Problem for me was full time could be 25 hrs a week or 90 hours a week.

Then I went many years getting paid by the minute, self employment.

Now, I have a salaried job, but it guarantees a consistent amount of hours, and if overtime is ever needed, pays additional to the agreed upon salary.
The thing I like about salary is the predictability. The thing I don't like about salary is even when my work is completed, I have to stay around because they are paying me for a set minimum number of hours. Having spent years self employed, I despise down time and just watching YouTube or posting on a high school sports board to fill time.

I always said when self employed, I could get a raise anytime I wanted, just had to work harder or smarter. Of all the methods of compensation, my favorite is when pay is based off of production. I did a production based job starting when I was 5 years old, making .02 cents per dozen of eggs gathered and put in the cooler. By the time I was 12, I could easily earn $10/hr back in the early 1980's.