pay grade

noun

: a level of compensation for work especially when understood to reflect responsibility and authority

"People listen to you regardless of your pay grade," a Goldman managing director told me. "There is a real respect for the individual voice."

—John Cassidy

—often used figuratively

The unanswerable questions ascend into the skies, far above your pay grade, whatever it may be.

—Robert W. Lucky

Unfortunately … he appears to think the task of community development is below his pay grade.

—Faith Bautista

No one will read this book and come away wondering if steroids really work. Oh, they work. They bump a competitor up a whole pay grade—from finishing in the middle of the pack in the final heat to breaking the tape and collecting the winner's bonus.

—Michael Sokolove

Examples of pay grade in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Those are worthy discussions, and there are people above my pay grade who should have them. —James Nestor, Outside Online, 18 June 2024

And the governor, an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination this year, acknowledged that the arrival this week in Havana Harbor of a small Russian flotilla that included a nuclear submarine and another ship armed with hypersonic missiles was an issue above his pay grade. —David Lyons, Sun Sentinel, 14 June 2024

As for what’s above the pay grade of a Supreme Court justice, that includes God’s job of dispensing the divine grace that would make the country more godly. —The Editors, National Review, 12 June 2024

Three other tackles have surpassed that annual pay grade. —Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 10 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1883, in the meaning defined above