Base Salary

Definition

The fixed annual wage before bonuses and benefits, the number HR and employees sometimes interpret as meaning different things.

Example Usage

The position offers a base salary of $75,000 plus performance bonuses that you'll never quite earn.

Origin

Standard compensation terminology from 20th century

Fun Fact

Most employees negotiate base salary while employers emphasize that bonuses could inflate the true value significantly.

Source: Compensation Standards

Related Terms

Beginner

selection

In HR-speak, the allegedly objective process of choosing the 'best' candidate from a pool of applicants, theoretically based on qualifications rather than golf handicaps. In evolutionary biology, it's nature's brutal but effective hiring process where the most fit survive. Both involve a lot of comparison, some unconscious bias, and outcomes that won't please everyone.

👥 Human Resources

Intermediate

RSU (Restricted Stock Units)

Equity compensation that vests over time, converting hypothetical wealth into actual shares on a schedule designed to retain talent who can't afford to leave.

👥 Human Resources

Advanced

transfer of learning

The application of skills and knowledge gained in training to actual job performance, measuring whether that expensive workshop actually changed behavior. It's the difference between completing the course and actually using what you learned back at your desk.

👥 Human Resources

Advanced

secondment

A temporary transfer of an employee to another department, division, or even organization while maintaining their original employment relationship. It's corporate exchange student programs, but you still have to do actual work.

👥 Human Resources

Beginner

Compensation and Benefits (Comp & Ben)

The department that simultaneously manages payroll, health insurance, 401k plans, and the mounting resentment from employees who discover their insurance covers virtually nothing.

👥 Human Resources

Intermediate

variable pay

Compensation that fluctuates based on performance, including bonuses, commissions, and incentives rather than fixed salary. It's the carrot-and-stick approach where the carrot's size depends on whether you met your KPIs this quarter.

👥 Human Resources

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