They are basically the same. But, Your "pay" could be the money you get for: just one day, or just one project, or just one week, or it could mean how much you earn in an hour, or in a year. It is a very flexible word. "Wage" = usually means the amount per hour, and sometimes you will hear the phrase "A day's wages" meaning how much money a person earned in a day. Salary = usually "salary" means how much a job pays a person each year. For example: "His salary was $28,000 a year." I hope this helps.

There's not a significant difference, but if I could classify them by how formal they are I'd say: pay - the most casual/least formal - examples: "I got paid today" , "I need higher pay to buy a house" - it's the way you'd talk among friends, not so much when talking with your boss. wage - more formal - examples: "You'll get your wages monthly" , "Accountants normally have a higher wage than shop assistants" . In my mind it's a more 'working class' term, I wouldn't expect a senior executive to talk about their "wage", only low or middle income workers. salary - a bit more professional than wage, when negotiating a pay rise at work, for example. Examples - "An annual salary of $30,000 won't get you far these days" , "He changed companies to secure a higher salary". I would expect more senior staff to tend to talk about 'salary' rather than 'wages', although they are synonyms and interchangeable, they just have slightly different connotations. Hope that helps, let me know if you're not clear!

Ian and Tyrone are correct, but I'd like to add something about the word "salary". When someone is hired and is told: "Your salary is going to be $48,000 a year," it means that is the amount that is spread out through the 26 weeks they're going to see a pay-cheque. It means this person is likely always going to see $2000 (less taxes and other deductions) on every single cheque, bi-monthly. It's a negotiated amount. Working a salary job usually means you work whenever you're needed. Sometimes these people to work at night, on weekends, or while they're on vacation. On the other hand, if they are sick for three days, they are still on salary and won't lose pay. It entirely depends on the job and the arrangements, but having a salary in terms of how we use it to describe a job's pay is *not the same* as someone who earns wages by the hour. If you get paid by the hour, and you leave half-way through your shift, you don't get paid for those hours you didn't work. People who work at McDonald's who have hourly-wages cannot say they have the same "salary" as someone else because everyone works different shifts and might get paid more or less than their co-workers. At the end of the year, come tax time, anyone can be asked what their salary was meaning how much they ended up making in the year. But when it comes to describing *how* you are being paid, there is a different structure for those on a salary vs. those making wages.