payrolln.
/ˈpeɪrəʊl/, U.S. /ˈpeɪˌroʊl/ 1.
a. (A list of) all those receiving regular pay from a particular employer; (hence) the total amount which a company or business pays annually to its employees.
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society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to conditions > [noun] > employee > who receive regular pay
payroll1740
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > payment for labour or service > paying (money) for labour or service > [noun] > total amount paid to employees
payroll1740
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > payment for labour or service > paying (money) for labour or service > [noun] > list or book of payments
payroll1740
acquittance-roll1799
wage-book1865
statement1889
wage-sheet1903
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to conditions > [noun] > employee > who receive regular pay > list of
payroll1740
1740 C. Cibber Apol. Life C. Cibber xiii. 257 The Rate of their respective Sallaries were only enter'd in our daily Pay-Roll.
1775 Rec. New Hampsh. Comm. Safety in New Hampsh. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1863) 7 26 Examined and allowed Capt. Crafford's pay Roll of his men engaged for fourteen days.
1780 Cal. Virginia State Papers (1875) I. 387 Enclose pay roll & account for purchase of kettles and dutch-ovens.
1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast xxix. 103 When the crew were paid off..the owners..generously refused to deduct the amount from the pay-roll.
1884 Harper's Mag. June 61/2 Pay-rolls, check-book stubs, registers,..are here stowed away.
1898 Westm. Gaz. 9 July 6/1 An employer with a total pay-roll of £30,000.
1921 C. E. Mulford Bar-20 Three viii. 96 Looks like some Greaser had a grudge agin' him—somebody he's mebby fired off his payroll, or suspected of cattle-liftin'.
1990 Accountancy Mar. 121/3 Employers make a single social security payment of 24.5% of their payroll.
b. on the payroll: in receipt of the pay of a particular employer; (hence) belonging to a particular workforce. Also in extended use: under the control or influence of a person or organization, through the receipt of bribes or other secret payments.
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1862 E. L. Pierce Negroes at Port Royal 30 The number at this camp are about 600,..of which 137 are on the pay-roll.
1882 Harper's Mag. Mar. 548/1 On the pay-roll..were laborers of the extent of eighteen hundred and fifty.
1958 Punch 23 July 98/1 Skilled British agents are showing cause why they should be retained on the pay-roll.
1973 ‘H. Howard’ Highway to Murder viii. 98 Nobody on my payroll had anything to do with Vince Portelli's killing.
1990 S. Jamba Patriots (1992) ix. 64 Your party licks the boots of Americanism imperialism and your leaders are on the payroll of the CIA.
2. A sum of money constituting the total wage bill of an employer for a particular period; a consignment of cash for the payment of wages at a factory, etc.
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1861 Charleston (S. Carolina) Mercury 11 Oct. 1/4 The muster roll there includes about 1,700 men, and the monthly payroll amounts to about $35,000.
1926 J. Black You can't Win xx. 303 I followed the pay-roll aboard the jerkwater train that carried it to the waiting miners.
1935 M. Anderson Winterset i. ii. 17 I was with a gang one time that robbed a pay roll.
1977 New Yorker 29 Aug. 87/1 The Italian anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men while stealing a payroll in South Braintree.
1992 S. Logie Winging It viii. 183 With no revenue coming into the program Canadair was out of cash at the time and risked missing a payroll.
Compounds
C1.
payroll cheque n.
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1933 S. J. Kunitz Authors Today & Yesterday 192 Intensely preoccupied with his work, De Morgan frequently forgot to eat his meals or sign the payroll checks.
2003 Birmingham (Alabama) News (Nexis) 15 Aug. Council president pro tempore Sarah Belcher said she came to City Hall about 9:30 a.m. to start signing payroll checks.
payroll clerk n.
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1877 Times 27 Oct. 10/1 Frederick R. Goodridge, the pay-roll clerk of the United States Patent Office, confessed that he had been keeping false pay rolls.
2003 Charlotte (N. Carolina) Observer (Nexis) 13 Aug. 1 y Reid has been a payroll clerk at the Springs Lancaster plant for 37 years.
payroll deduction n.
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1922 Amer. Econ. Rev. 12 367 A pay-roll deduction plan of saving for employees of the Crompton and Knowles Loom Works, Worcester.
2002 Belfast Tel. (Nexis) 27 May The money was donated by former and current employees of Powerstream NIE through a monthly payroll deduction.
payroll department n.
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1929 Accounting Rev. 4 190 The accrued commercial payroll will be determined by the payroll department.
1999 Daily Tel. 10 Nov. 29/1 The working families' tax credit, Mr Brown's pride and joy, is a nightmare for the payroll departments of smaller companies.
payroll index n.
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1927 C. O. Hardy & G. V. Cox Forecasting Business Conditions xx. 258 The pay-roll index compiled by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics is constructed in the same way as is its index of employment, already described.
1993 Financial Times (Nexis) 2 Apr. 35 A weaker than expected payroll index—down to 46.9 per cent from a previous 48.7 per cent—again depressed sentiment about today's main indicator.
payroll robbery n.
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1927 F. Frankfurter Case of Sacco & Vanzetti i. 9 So far as the crime is concerned we are dealing with a conventional case of pay-roll robbery resulting in murder.
2003 Daily Mail (Nexis) 10 Feb. 37 Walker murdered three Army colleagues during a payroll robbery.
payroll system n.
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1923 Managment & Admin. Oct. 8 (title) A daily balanced pay-roll system.
1993 Harrowsmith Feb. 41/3 Higgins..tried to buy a computerized payroll system for their fish plant.
C2.
payroll giving n. a system under which donations to charitable causes may be deducted from a person's pay before tax.
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1986 Times 19 Mar. 1/6 From April 1987 any employer will be able to set up ‘payroll giving’ schemes where employees will receive tax relief for donations of up to £100 a year deducted from their pay.
2002 Which? Tax Saving Guide 39/1 NI is worked out on your gross earning, before deducting pension payments, donations to charity under a payroll giving scheme, or income tax.
payroll tax n. a tax levied on a business according to the number of employees on its payroll.
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society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > impost, due, or tax > tax > types of tax > [noun] > tax on businesses
corporate tax1863
profits tax1903
turnover tax1920
payroll tax1924
S.E.T.1966
imputation1971
1924 N.Y. Times 18 Apr. 24/1 (headline) Proposes a payroll tax.
1964 B. Sternsher Rexford Tugwell & New Deal iv. xxiii. 308 He opposed a payroll tax... He maintained that it was equivalent to a sales tax and would compel those who could least afford it to finance the system.
1994 Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 7 Nov. d36/1 If you employ someone regularly at home, you probably owe a payroll tax.
payroll vote n. a group of voters guaranteed to vote in a particular way; (British Politics) a group of MPs (esp. those in receipt of ministerial or other government salaries) guaranteed to vote in support of the government.
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1948 J. T. Flynn Roosevelt Myth ii. ix. 219 In these states were those numerous minorities who had been captured completely by Roosevelt on the war issue. This, with the payroll vote and the big city machines in those states was enough to do the job. Roosevelt got 449, Willkie only 82 electoral votes.
1968 Times 23 Feb. 1/6 Mr. Charles Pannell..said the original decision..had been pushed through at a party meeting with the use of ‘the payroll vote’—a phrase indicating that the government had called in all Ministers, junior Ministers and Parliamentary private secretaries to ensure that they won the day.
1992 Independent 14 July 1/2 MPs reacted with fury yesterday as the Government wheeled out the 100-strong ‘payroll vote’ to stifle rebellions in last night's debate.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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