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Wages
Wages are an hourly rate that you earn.
For example, Sarah works part-time at a retail store. She gets paid $9 per hour. If she worked 15 hours last week, she earned $135 ($9 x 15). However, if she only works 12 hours this week, she will be paid $108 ($9 x 12). Since wages are an hourly rate, her paycheck will vary from week to week based on how much she works.
Salary
A salary is a set amount of money earned, regardless of hours worked. A salary is quoted on an annual basis.
For example, if your salary is $19,200 a year, you can calculate what your salary would be on a monthly basis by dividing $19,200 by 12 since there are 12 months in a year ($19,200 ÷ 12 = $1600). This means your monthly salary would be $1600 per month.
If your salary is $1600 per month, you would earn $1600 whether you work 40 hours or 60 hours each week.
Salaries usually average a higher pay rate than wages for an average amount of hours worked. The downside is that if a salaried position demands more than 40 hours per week and working on holidays, you won't get paid extra for that time.
Commission
Some people receive income from commission. Commission is a percentage of sales. If you are a sales representative for a clothing company, you may earn a 10% commission on each sale. For example, David earns a 10% commission on his sales. Last week, he sold $1,000 worth of clothing. His commission for last week is $100 ($1,000 x 10%).
Income & Level of Education
The amount of income you make is based on many different factors. Some of those factors are work ethic, opportunity, location, work conditions, and level of education. Statistics show that the higher level of education you obtain, the more money you will make. Of course there are always cases where people with very little education have a high income. There are also instances where people with a high level of education do not make a lot of money at all.
It is important to remember that you need to become skilled in order to make money. That could mean going to a 4 year college, 2 year college, or a training program after high school. This will increase your chances of making enough money to support yourself and your future family.