Pay Raise Question:

A pay is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. From the point of view of running a business, pay can also be viewed as the cost of acquiring and retaining human resources for running operations and is then termed personnel expense or pay expense. In accounting, pays are recorded in payroll accounts.
Pay is a fixed amount of money or compensation paid to an employee by an employer in return for work performed. Pay is commonly paid in fixed intervals, for example, monthly payments of one-twelfth of the annual pay.