wage 
(wāj)
(wāj)n.
1. A regular payment, usually on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis, made by an employer to an employee, especially for manual or unskilled work.
2. wages The price of labor in an economy.
3. often wages (used with a sing. or pl. verb) A fitting return; a recompense: the wages of sin.
tr.v. waged, wag·ing, wag·es
To engage in (a war or campaign, for example).
[Middle English, from Old North French, of Germanic origin.]