W-2 form, Wage and Tax Statement

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Definition: A summary of a person’s earnings and tax withholdings for an entire year. Employers must provide a W-2 to employees by the end of January for the previous year’s employment to report annual income and withholding on the employees’ tax returns.

W-4 form, Wage and Tax Statement

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Definition: Form W-4 (filled out by employee) tells the employer the employee’s filing status, multiple jobs adjustments, amount of credits, amount of other income, amount of deductions, and any additional amount to withhold from each paycheck to use to compute the amount of federal income tax to deduct and withhold from the employee’s pay.

Wage and salary workers

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Definition: Workers who receive wages, salaries, commissions, tips, payment in kind, or piece rates. The group includes employees in both the private and public sectors.

Wage rate

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Prevailing pay scale for work performed in a given area or region

Wage garnishment

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Definition: A court order imposed on an employer to withhold a portion of an employee’s wages to be sent to a person or business to whom the employee owes money.

Wage-price controls

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Policies and regulations making it illegal for firms to give raises or increase prices

Wage-price spiral

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Inflationary condition where wages drive up prices and then prices drive up wages, then repeat cycle with wages driving pieces even higher 

Wages

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Definition: Compensation received by employees for services performed. Usually, wages are computed by multiplying an hourly pay rate by the number of hours worked.

Wages and salaries

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Definition: Hourly straight-time wage rate or, for workers not paid on an hourly basis, straight-time earnings divided by the corresponding hours. Straight-time wage and salary rates are total earnings before payroll deductions, excluding premium pay for overtime and for work on weekends and holidays, shift differentials, and nonproduction bonuses such as lump-sum payments provided in lieu of wage increases.

Related Term(s): Earnings

Want

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Way of expressing or communicating a need; a broader classification than needs

Wants

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Definition: Desires that can be satisfied by consuming goods and services.

Warrant

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Definition: A security that entitles the holder to buy stock of the issuing company at a specified price on or after a specified date.

Wealth

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Sum of tangible economic goods that are scarce, useful, and transferable from one person to another; excludes services

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Definition: The value of a person’s assets accumulated over time.

Wealth effect

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Wealth’s impact on consumption; a decrease in wealth can deter consumption, and increase would generate additional consumption

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Definition: The effect on consumer spending caused by a change in the aggregate price level on the purchasing power of the consumers’ assets.

Wealth tax

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Any inheritance tax designed to reduce the disparity between wealthy and less wealthy individuals

Weekly hours

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Definition: Usually, the expected or actual period of employment for the week, usually expressed in number of hours. Some uses of the term may relate to the outside dimensions of a week (e.g., 7 consecutive days).

Welfare

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Government or private agency programs that provide general economic and social assistance to needy individuals

Wholesale Price Index (WPI)

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Former name of the Producer Price Index (PPI)

Wholesale Price Index (WPI)

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Definition: The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was the original name of the Producer Price Index (PPI) program from its inception in 1902 until 1978, when it was renamed (PPI). At the same time, emphasis was shifted from one index encompassing the whole economy, to three main indexes covering the stages of production in the economy. By changing emphasis, BLS eliminated the double counting phenomenon inherent in aggregate commodity-based indexes.

Willingness to pay

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Definition: The maximum amount that a buyer will pay for a good or service.

Wire transfer

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Definition: Electronic transfer of funds; usually involves large dollar payments.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Definition: Electronic transfer of funds; usually involves large dollar payments.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Definition: Electronic transfer of funds; usually involves large dollar payments.

Withholding (“pay-as-you-earn” taxation)

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Definition: Money, for example, that employers withhold from employees’ paychecks. This money is deposited for the government. (It will be credited against the employees’ tax liability when they file their returns.) Employers withhold money for federal income taxes, Social Security taxes and state and local income taxes in some states and localities.

Withholding allowence

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Definition: The amount of money that an employer withholds from an employee’s paycheck. This money is deposited for the government on behalf of the individual taxpayer. (It will be credited against the employee’s tax liability when he or she files a tax return.) Employers withhold money for federal income taxes, Social Security taxes, and state and local income taxes in some states and localities.

Work ethic

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Personal set of values that hard work is intrinsically valuable and worthy of reward

 
Work experience

U.S. Census Bureau

Definition: A person with work experience is one who, during the preceding calendar year, did any work for pay or profit or worked without pay on a family-operated farm or business at any time during the year, on a part-time or full-time basis. A full-time worker is one who worked 35 hours or more per week during a majority of the weeks worked during the preceding calendar year. A year-round worker is one who worked for 50 weeks or more during the preceding calendar year. A full-time, year-round worker is a person who worked full time (35 or more hours per week) and 50 or more weeks during the previous calendar year.

Work levels (National Compensation Survey)

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Definition: The National Compensation Survey produces levels of work within an occupation. The duties and responsibilities of a job are evaluated using 9 factors (such as knowledge, supervision received, and complexity of the work) in determining a work level. Levels vary by occupation, ranging from 1-15. For example, a level 1 may represent an entry level, while a level 15 demonstrates mastery.

Workfare

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Program requiring welfare recipients to provide labor in exchange for benefits

  
Worklife estimates

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Definition: Estimates of the number of years individuals would spend in the labor force based on mortality conditions, labor force entry and exit rates, and demographic characteristics. Worklife estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics were last updated in February 1986.

 
Workout

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Definition: A workout is a process where the terms of a loan are modified or the lender agrees to some forbearance in order to avoid default, foreclosure or bankruptcy.

World Bank

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Definition: Created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 with a mission to finance economic development, The World Bank Group comprises five agencies that make loans or guarantee credit to its 177 member countries. In addition to financing projects such as roads, power plants and schools, the Bank also makes loans to restructure a country’s economic system by funding structural adjustment programs (SAPs).

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: International agency that makes loans to developing countries; formally known as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

World Economic Forum

Economics: Principles & Practices

Definition: Research/conference group consisting of the most advanced economic nations that holds annual meetings in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss plans to help developing countries

World Trade Organization (WTO)

Definition: International agency that administers trade agreements, settles trade disputes between governments, organizes trade negotiations, and provides technical assistance and training for developing countries

Wraparound

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Definition: A financing device that permits an existing loan to be refinanced and new money to be advanced at an interest rate between the rate charged on the old loan and the current market interest rate. The creditor combines or “wraps” the remainder of the old loan with the new loan at the intermediate rate.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Definition: A financing device that permits an existing loan to be refinanced and new money to be advanced at an interest rate between the rate charged on the old loan and the current market interest rate. The creditor combines or “wraps” the remainder of the old loan with the new loan at the intermediate rate.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Definition: A financing device that permits an existing loan to be refinanced and new money to be advanced at an interest rate between the rate charged on the old loan and the current market interest rate. The creditor combines or ‘wraps’ the remainder of the old loan with the new loan at the intermediate rate.