Dictionary.net

A reward or recompense for services performed.

It is usually applied to the reward paid to a public officer for the performance of his official duties.

The salary of the president of the United States is twenty-five thousand dollars per annum; Act of l8th Feb. 1793; and the constitution, art. 2, s. 1, provides that the compensation of the president shall not be increased or diminished, during the time for which he shall have been elected.

Salary is also applied to the reward paid for the performance of other services; but if it be not fixed for each year, it is called honorarium. Poth. Pand. h. t. According to M. Duvergier, the distinction between honorarium and salary is this. By the former is understood the reward given to the most ele-vated professions for services performed; and by the latter the price of hir-ing of domestic servants and workmen. 19 Toull. n. 268, p. 292, note.

There is this difference between salary and price; the former is the re-ward paid for services, or for the hire of things; the latter is the consideration paid for a thing sold. Lec. Elem. §907, 908.