工资(gōng zī) - wage/salary in Mandarin

工资 (gōngzī) is "wages" or "salary", the money paid for work. 工 (gōng) means "work, labour" and 资 (zī) means "funds, resources", so the compound reads as "work funds".

工资 (gōngzī) covers both a monthly salary and an hourly wage, unlike English, which often keeps the two words separate; context, not vocabulary, tells a Chinese listener which is meant. The common collocation 发工资 (fā gōngzī), "to pay wages" (literally "to issue wages"), uses 发 (fā) rather than 给 (gěi), "to give", which is a specific pairing worth memorising rather than guessing.

涨工资 (zhǎng gōngzī), "to get a pay rise", and 工资单 (gōngzīdān), "payslip", both build directly on 工资 (gōngzī) and are worth learning alongside it.