High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A wage is a compensation, usually financial, received by workers in exchange for their labor. Compensation in terms of wages is given to workers and compensation in terms of salary is given to employees. Compensation is a monetary benefit given to employees in return for the services provided by them. Depending on the structure and traditions of different economies around the world, wage rates are either the product of market forces (Supply and Demand), as is common in the United States, or wage rates may be influenced by other factors such as tradition, social structure and seniority, as in Japan. Several countries have enacted a statutory minimum wage rate that sets a price floor for certain kinds of labor.