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Wage

Economics
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Payment given to a worker for labor, usually by the hour, day, or task.

Detailed Definition
A wage is compensation paid to workers in return for their time, skill, and effort. It is a powerful poetic measure because it translates hours of life into a stated sum. Poems may contrast a wage with the real costs of rent, food, childcare, illness, and rest, or explore the emotional weight of payday, unpaid work, wage theft, and the dignity of earning a living.
Example
Example in poetry:
A worker’s poem can make a wage concrete through an hourly total that fails to cover rent and food; In a love poem, “the wage of longing” can mean the emotional price paid for desire; Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “The Cry of the Children” is a useful example of poetry confronting exploited child workers; A poem can contrast a rising executive salary with a stagnant wage for those who do the daily work
Additional Notes
A wage is payment for work, often calculated hourly or by task. Compare salary, a fixed regular payment, and minimum wage, a legal floor for many workers.
Also Known As
Pay Remuneration
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