A 'salary' is the money you are paid, usually monthly, for doing a job, usually non-manual.

• I get a good salary but I need more money.
• What sort of salary are they offering?

A 'competitive salary' is a good one for that particular job.

• We are offering a very competitive salary so we should get good applicants.
• We are not recruiting the best people because our salaries are not very competitive.

A person who gets a salary is a 'salaried employee'.

• We've reduced the number of salaried employees by 50% and replaced them by temporary workers.
• It is much easier to get a loan if you are a salaried employee.

If you need money, you can ask for 'a salary advance'.

• Can I have a salary advance? I'm broke.
• I asked my boss for a salary advance but he refused to give me one.

If you 'undertake a salary review', you look at all the salaries to decide which need changing.

• The committee are undertaking a salary review and will report back in a few weeks time.
• We need to undertake a salary review as our salaries are not very competitive.

'A salary scale' is the range of salaries available.

• When you start, you will be at the bottom of the salary scale but you will not stay there for long.
• Our salary scale is not very competitive compared to our competition.

If a salary is good, we can say that it is 'attractive'.

• We are offering a very attractive salary for the job.
• It is an attractive salary but I will have to work on Saturdays.

Everybody hopes to get a 'salary increase'.

• We had no salary increase this year because the company was in trouble.
• If you offer me an increase in salary, I will stay.

The 'basic salary' is the salary before any extras such as bonuses.

• The basic salary is quite low but there are large incentive bonuses.
• I prefer to have a large basic salary as there is more security.

When you start a job, you will receive your 'initial salary'.

• The initial salary is quite low but you should get promoted to a better job quite quickly.
• If we want to recruit better people, we will have to offer a more competitive initial salary.