The Payroll Was Once an Actual Roll of Names
A payroll is the list of employees and their wages, and the money paid out. The name comes from the rolled document it was written on.
A payroll is the list of people a business pays and the total it pays them. The name is literal history: records were written on parchment rolls, so the roll of those to be paid was the payroll. The same *roll* survives in *electoral roll* and in *rolling up* at a meeting.
- The list of employees and their pay. *Fifty people on the payroll.*
- The total wages paid. *A monthly payroll of half a million.*
- The department that handles it. *Ask payroll about the deduction.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | payroll | The payroll run. |
| Plural | payrolls | Company payrolls. |
| Compound | payroll tax | Payroll taxes. |
| Related | wage bill | The annual wage bill. |
| Related | headcount | Reducing headcount. |
How it is used in a sentence
- She has been on the payroll since 2019.Meaning employed.
- The firm struggled to meet payroll.American phrasing for paying wages on time.
- Payroll processes claims on the fifteenth.The department.
Payroll vocabulary
- Gross pay — before deductions
- Net pay — what actually arrives
- Deductions — tax, pension, national insurance
- PAYE — the British system of deducting tax at source
- Payslip — the statement showing the calculation
A compound of *pay* and *roll*, from Latin *rotulus*, a little wheel, then a rolled document. Records were kept in rolls long before they were kept in books.
What does *meeting payroll* mean?
Having enough money to pay staff on time. In small businesses it is the deadline that matters most.
Why is a list called a roll?
Because official lists were written on rolled parchment. The same sense survives in electoral roll and roll call.