Other forms: payrolls
The payroll is the list of everyone a company pays and what each of them gets. Two hundred names, their hours, their tax, and the money leaving the account on the 25th.
'On the payroll' means employed by them, and it is the phrase you meet most: forty people on the payroll, or, in a crime story, a police officer on somebody's payroll. The word also means the total wage bill — 'payroll is our biggest cost' — and the job of paying everyone: the payroll department, payroll software, running payroll on a Friday. It is one word with no hyphen, and it is a noun; you do not payroll anybody. In American economic news 'payrolls' is short for the monthly count of jobs, so 'payrolls rose by 200,000' is about hiring rather than money. British companies say 'the wage bill' where Americans reach for payroll.
1nounpayrollThe list of a company's employees and the money each one is paid.
“Her name went on the payroll the day she signed.”
2nountotalThe total amount a company pays its staff.
“Payroll swallowed most of the summer's takings.”
3noundepartmentThe department or process that pays a company's staff.
“Send your new bank details to payroll before the 20th.”
payroll is a business record.
Payroll is pay plus roll, and the roll is the roll of roll call: a list of names. Put the names and the money on one sheet and you have the word.
From pay + roll.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Work & Careers, Business & Money