The Occitan word jornal , which derives from the Latin diurnus ( "daytime" ), arrived in Spanish without variations: jornal . The concept refers to the work that a person does in a day and the remuneration he or she receives for it.
The daily wage, therefore, is the daily work activity and the stipend that corresponds to it. He who works daily (without a weekly, biweekly, monthly or fixed commitment) what he does is day labor ; This type of worker is known as a day laborer .
The most common use of the notion is associated with the payment that the worker receives per day . The daily wage, therefore, is a form of remuneration for work: a salary or salary .
Suppose that the owner of a business, sporadically and informally, usually calls a young man to help him organize the deposit . This merchant agrees with the worker on a daily wage of 500 pesos : that is, the boy receives 500 pesos for each day of work. If you go to work four days a month, you will receive a monthly remuneration of 2,000 pesos , according to the agreed daily wage.
In formal jobs in a dependency relationship, the most common form of payment is the monthly salary . The worker, in this way, receives at the end of each month (or at the beginning of the following month) the money corresponding to the activity carried out during the preceding days. Those who receive a daily wage, on the other hand, usually find themselves in a situation of informality or precariousness, with little or no job stability and without the benefits enjoyed by other types of employees.
At first glance, the daily wage seems to offer more disadvantages than advantages compared to the monthly salary, especially if it is one that arises from a regular contractual relationship, which includes health coverage and annual extra payments. However, it would be false to claim that no one chooses this type of work voluntarily, rejecting others with the opposite payment methodology, since it does have advantages that are compatible with certain lifestyles.
For example, for someone who is in the middle of a trip to several countries or cities and who knows that they will not stay in one place for long, a job with daily wages may be more appropriate than one with a monthly salary. The lack of legal commitment on the part of the employer is always the first thing that is analyzed and viewed negatively; However, in a case like this it is more evident that the employee does not risk much either, and both can benefit, avoiding certain complications when the employment relationship is dissolved.
Another advantage of daily work for employees is that it allows them to minimize potential friction with their employers and co-workers. Depending on the industry, the discomfort that naturally arises from coexistence can accumulate and generate a state of stress that leads certain people to lose patience and make decisions that cost them their job. If we don't like the attitude of our employer or one of our colleagues but we only see them a few times a month, we have the opportunity to channel negative feelings outside the office .
Regarding the disadvantages that the daily wage can entail, in addition to the lack of stability, there is the fact of receiving small sums very frequently, instead of a large one every four weeks: although at first it may seem like an incentive, in the end In the long term we may realize that we spend more than we earn, precisely because the movement of money is greater, even if the amount is equal to or less than that of a monthly salary.