Home/Taiwanese Mandarin/All pairs/薪水 vs 工资
salary · Different everyday word
Different everyday word The two terms share no characters at all. In Taiwan the standard term is 薪水; on the Mainland it is 工资 - both point at “salary”.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education dictionaries record 薪水、工資 for this concept. The Mainland standard is among them - the difference is which form each side makes the default.
薪水 is L4 vocabulary on the TOCFL 华语八千词 list; 工资 is HSK 3 vocabulary on the HSK 3.0 list.
Pair source: LinZi’s curated MOE-vs-HSK comparison table.
| Taiwan · 台灣 | Mainland · 大陆 | |
|---|---|---|
| Written form | 薪水 | 工资 |
| Reading | ㄒㄧㄣ ㄕㄨㄟˇ xīn shuǐ | gōng zī ㄍㄨㄥ ㄗ |
| Senses | salary; wage | wages; pay |
| Syllabus | TOCFL L4 | HSK 3 |
| MOE records | 薪水 · 工資 | |
| Dictionary | entry → | entry → |
| Audio | ||
Taiwan vs Mainland explorer (search all 953 pairs, random pair, MOE reading table) · every pair, A–Z · MOE standard characters · learning Mandarin for Taiwan · dictionary