Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Wages \Wa"ges\, n. plural in termination, but singular in
   signification. [Plural of wage; cf. F. gages, pl., wages,
   hire. See {Wage}, n.]
   A compensation given to a hired person for services; price
   paid for labor; recompense; hire. See {Wage}, n., 2.

         The wages of sin is death.               --Rom. vi. 23.

   {Wages fund} (Polit. Econ.), the aggregate capital existing
      at any time in any country, which theoretically is
      unconditionally destined to be paid out in wages. It was
      formerly held, by Mill and other political economists,
      that the average rate of wages in any country at any time
      depended upon the relation of the wages fund to the number
      of laborers. This theory has been greatly modified by the
      discovery of other conditions affecting wages, which it
      does not take into account. --Encyc. Brit.

   Syn: See under {Wage}, n.