HEAAADERLOGORIGHT

BUSINESS ENGLISH · BUSINESS ISSUES · PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

WORK
AND PAY
QrrkoD Scan to review worksheet

Expemo code:
1BPF-L79E-484R

1 Warm up
In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. How often do you get paid? Is this the same for most people in your country? Why/why not?
2. How do you receive information about your pay from the company you work for? What do you
do with that information?
3. How do you organise the money that you receive from your pay? Do you save any? What do you
spend most of it on?

2 Focus on vocabulary
Part A: Match the definitions to the nouns.

1. gross pay a. the money you receive from working before any is taken out

2. net pay b. money you pay to the government from the money you
receive from working
3. deduction c. money taken out of the pay you receive

4. earnings d. money you make from working extra hours

5. payslip e. a document giving details of how much money you made

and what was taken out
6. overtime f. money you earn as a percentage of products or services you
sell
7. tax g. the money you make from working

8. commission h. the money you receive from working after certain payments
have been made

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 1/7

Scan the QR at the top of Page 1 to review the lesson flashcards with Expemo.
© Linguahouse.com. Photocopiable and licensed for use in Corina School's lessons.
 HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

WORK AND PAY

Part B: Now decide how many syllables each of the terms from Part A have. Then with each noun of
more than one syllable, decide which syllable is stressed.

Part C: Complete the following sentences with the vocabulary from Part A.

1. I’ve been doing this job for a month now, so I received my first today and I can
see how much I made selling all of those computers.

2. Sylvie has been using the from her job to save up for a holiday and she’s been
working a lot of to get as much money as possible.

3. If I get this salary increase, my will be more than my is now.

4. I organise my money by what goes into my bank account. I don’t really think about the
that come out of my pay, such as .

3 Listening for gist

Listen to the conversation and answer the question below.

1. What does Adam do? He’s a:

a. Banker

b. Car sales person

c. Policeman

FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 2/7

Scan the QR at the top of Page 1 to review the lesson flashcards with Expemo.
© Linguahouse.com. Photocopiable and licensed for use in Corina School's lessons.
 HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

WORK AND PAY

4 Listening comprehension

Read the following sentences and decide if they are true (T) or false (F).

1. Adam’s hasn’t had a payslip from this company before.

2. Adam receives his pay every two weeks.

3. Adam’s father thinks Adam made a lot of sales in his first month.

4. Adam worked overtime this month.

5. Adam’s pay will always be the same each month.

6. Adam’s father suggests saving 20% of his commission each month.

7. Adam’s father gives him reasons why he pays tax.

You can check your answers with the transcript in section nine.

5 Understanding benefits

Look at the following benefits that can come with a job. Read the article on page four with different
people talking about their benefits and write them in the correct gaps.

health insurance paid holiday

pension dental insurance

subsidised meals childcare

company car sick pay

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 3/7

Scan the QR at the top of Page 1 to review the lesson flashcards with Expemo.
© Linguahouse.com. Photocopiable and licensed for use in Corina School's lessons.
 HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

WORK AND PAY

FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 4/7

Scan the QR at the top of Page 1 to review the lesson flashcards with Expemo.
© Linguahouse.com. Photocopiable and licensed for use in Corina School's lessons.
 HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

WORK AND PAY

6 Reading comprehension

Complete the following table by putting a tick in the correct box.

Who...? Brian Amanda Lucy

1. has a child?

2. does a lot of driving

for their job?

3. worked abroad for

a while?

4. is putting away
money for an
expensive item?

5. only eats one meal

per day at home?

6. had problems
because they had no
basic benefits?

7. has a benefit that

they don’t really use?

8. has parents who

are retired?

7 Talking point

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. Which benefits do you have in your job?

2. Do you think an employer should offer sick pay? Why/why not?
3. Do you pay tax in your country? Do you know what percentage you pay? What is tax used for in
you country?
4. Do you use all of your benefits? Why/why not?
5. Can you earn commission in your job? Do you think earning commission is a good idea? Why/why
not? What are the positives and negatives of commission?

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 5/7

Scan the QR at the top of Page 1 to review the lesson flashcards with Expemo.
© Linguahouse.com. Photocopiable and licensed for use in Corina School's lessons.
 HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

WORK AND PAY

8 Extended activity/Homework

Read the question.

An employer does not need to offer benefits to the worker. It is a

simple exchange: you spend time doing work and the employer pays
you for that time. It doesn’t need to be any more difficult than that. If
someone comes to your house to clean your windows, you don’t pay
them to have a rest.

To what extent do you agree with the above statement?

You should:

• Write at least 250 words

• Check your grammar, spelling and punctuation

FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 6/7

Scan the QR at the top of Page 1 to review the lesson flashcards with Expemo.
© Linguahouse.com. Photocopiable and licensed for use in Corina School's lessons.
 HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

WORK AND PAY

9 Transcript
Check what you heard.

Adam: Dad, I’ve just received this in my email and I don’t really understand it, to be honest.
Obviously, it’s from my new job, but I don’t know what all of the different parts mean.
Dad: Ah! Your first payslip! Let’s have a look. (Pause) Not a bad start, Adam. OK, so this
line is your gross pay.
Adam: What does that mean?

Dad: That’s what you get paid before they start taking anything away. We’ll get to that. So
basically, if you take your salary and divide it by twelve, that’s what you get in your
pay slip each month.
Adam: Ah OK.

Dad: This column here is the deductions – everything they are taking out of your salary.
This one is your earnings – everything you make. Sad column, happy column. Got it?
Adam: (laughs) Yeah.

Dad: So here in the earnings column, you also got your commission for the cars you sold.
You did really well for your first month.
Adam: Not bad, eh?

Dad: Not bad at all. You’ve also got your overtime here. That’s the extra hours you worked.
So, it looks as though you’ve made about 25% more than your basic pay.
Adam: Excellent.

Dad: But remember that amount is not going to be the same every month. So, when you
are planning your spending, plan based on this number, your net pay. That is the
amount which has gone into your bank account. That is what you will have to use
for rent, buying food, and anything else you do. My advice is to save at least 20%
of that each month. Even better, calculate your spending on your salary before the
commission. Then if you don’t make any sales, you don’t have to worry about having
enough money to live on.
Adam: That doesn’t look like fun.

Dad: But what is fun is going on holiday, buying your own car, and buying a place to live.
You can’t do any of that if you’ve got no money.
Adam: Fair enough. And what is this one? Tax?

Dad: That is the money the government takes out of your gross pay.

Adam: I don’t like that.

Dad: But what you do like is having police to protect you, roads for your cars to drive on,
buses and trains to get to work and people to call if your house is on fire. You live in
a society and that is the money you pay to help look after that society.
Adam: I hadn’t thought of it like that. Thanks, Dad. That’s really helpful.

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 7/7

Scan the QR at the top of Page 1 to review the lesson flashcards with Expemo.
© Linguahouse.com. Photocopiable and licensed for use in Corina School's lessons.