Meaning & use
take-home salary
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
The amount of a person's earnings that remains after taxes, insurance and other deductions have been taken out.
Grammar: Usually singular with a possessive: my take-home salary. Compare gross salary, which is the amount before deductions.
Patterns
- someone's take-home salary
- a take-home salary of amount
Her take-home salary is about $600 less than the figure in the job advert.
After pension contributions, his take-home salary barely covers the rent.
Before accepting the offer, work out what your take-home salary will really be.
Word forms
| plural | take-home salaries |
|---|
Common combinations
- monthly take-home salary
- My monthly take-home salary goes mostly on rent and transport.
- reduce your take-home salary
- Higher health insurance costs will reduce your take-home salary next year.
- increase your take-home salary
- A tax-free allowance can increase your take-home salary slightly.
- calculate your take-home salary
- Use an online tool to calculate your take-home salary after tax.
- average take-home salary
- The average take-home salary in the city has risen only slightly.
Synonyms and how they differ
- take-home pay
- Means almost exactly the same, but is the more common phrase and is used for hourly wages as well as salaries.
- net pay
- Sounds more technical and is common on payslips and in accounting, while take-home salary is the everyday spoken form.
- net salary
- Stresses yearly or monthly salary specifically and is common in British and international business English.
Opposites
Word family
- take-home adjective
- describes what you receive after deductions, as in take-home pay
- salary noun
- fixed regular payment for professional or office work
- salaried adjective
- paid a fixed salary rather than by the hour
Commonly confused: take-home salary or gross salary?
take-home salary vs gross salary
Gross salary is the total before tax and deductions; take-home salary is what you actually receive.
Practice
Maya's contract says $5,000 a month, but after tax and insurance only $3,900 reaches her account. The $3,900 is her ____.
Choose one answer.
Take-home salary is the amount left after deductions. Gross salary is the larger figure before deductions, so it is the tempting wrong choice.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “take-home salary”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.