salary is also very generic

在英文中， salary 和 wages 的区别，主要在于支付方式的不同，salary 多指按月或年度支付的劳动报酬，而 wages 则不一定，只要是劳动报酬，不管支付形式如何，都可以叫 wages。所以，我认为， wages 是比较一般的词，包括任何形式的金钱报酬。而 salary 则是比较有规律的固定的劳动报酬，所以更多地指白领人员的月薪和年薪。

Salary = Regular wages and benefits an employee receives from an employer.

Wages - include salary or any other pecuniary remuneration as may be prescribed.

中国的现行工资制度中，国家正式职工基本上都是实行月工资制，很少有计时、机件工资。所以，我认为这里还是用 salary 比价合适。


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Note added at 2003-12-31 23:46:37 (GMT)
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抱歉，“机件工资”应为“计件工资”，“比价合适”应为“比较合适”。

Chinese term (edited): ����

Actually I agree with the other colleagues. But if you really look for a general term, you may want to try income, it can be yearly income or monthly income or else depending on how you look at it.

'Wages' almost always refers to pay -- whether it is dispersed daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly -- that is calculated by the number of hours worked. This is the usual mode of pay for blue-collar workers.

A salary, on the other hand, is a fixed weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly or yearly, etc. sum. This is the usual mode of pay for white-collar workers.

The difference between a wage and a salary, then, is not primarily a matter of the length of interval between payment -- both may be dispersed, e.g., biweekly or monthly -- but how the amount paid is calculated: by the hour or per fixed period.

Neither is an exact fit for 'gongzi'
While both 'wages' and 'salary' are used generally to refer to pay by native speakers, I disagree with Xiaoping that 'wages' is the accepted general term. The fact is that, other than the informal 'pay', there is not a general term in English corresponding to the Chinese 'gongzi'. The correct term must be chosen from context.

If the context is not clear, I would incline towards choosing 'salary', as it is generally better to err on the side of formality and status. In the case of your document, however, I see no problem with 'pay'. It is less formal because more general, but that doesn't make its use inappropriate within a formal context.

'Income' I think a poor choice. An income is money one receives (from any number of means -- work, real estate, etc.), not money that is paid to one. In other words, 'income' cannot be paid, only received. In some contexts 'income' may well be an appropriate translation for 'gongzi', but, based on what you've given us, I suspect that here it is not.

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Note added at 2004-01-01 01:05:59 (GMT)
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I didn\'t see Hamo\'s suggestion until after I\'d posted this one. If you\'ve not the context to choose between \'salary\' or \'wages\' and dislike \'pay\'s informality, \'remuneration\', which basically means 報酬 (from the Latin \'to pay back\'), would be an excellent choice.