Do you mean as in being paid a fixed sum for a given period, as opposed to by hours worked or something? No, that’s a worldwide thing, and a very old concept.

Yes, that's what I mean. Not quite sure how worldwide it is, but as far as I'm aware, my country doesn't have it - either that or it's limited to a very special caste of workers, maybe CEOs or board members or something, but definitely not "normal people" with regular employment contracts as per our labor law.

May I ask where you are from?

I'm Czech.

Thanks. So do every white collar worker log and get paid by the hour? Government officials, etc?

Around here, the major distinction is not between salary and wage, but rather between "mzda" (private sector remuneration) and "plat" (public sector remuneration). "Mzda" as far as I'm aware is strictly hourly. Perhaps the closest thing that comes to a salary in the private sector is a certain kind of arrangement called roughly "accounted working time" that ensures that even if your actual working hours fall below a minimum of something like 80% of your notional working hours, your pay will be capped from below at this rate relative to your long term average income. Or something like that. The whole regulation is quite complicated for a layman, me included. As far as "plat" is concerned, well, Wikipedia directs me to "salary" from the Czech page for "plat", whereas it directs me to "wage" from the Czech page for "mzda", so perhaps public sector remuneration might qualify as salary, with a number of qualifications (such as that the remuneration is never negotiated but dictated by government tables, that overtime pay is still a thing, etc.) The base component of "plat" is monthly, so perhaps similar to salary, except it's being adjusted in ways that make it difficult for me to tell whether the whole result is salary or not (think overtime adjustments, night work adjustments, personal performance adjustments, etc., most of which require working hour logging anyway).

Very interesting, thanks. I have personal experience in Sweden and the UK, where salaries are the norm for white collar work. My understanding from speaking to people from other parts of Northern and Western Europe, Southern Africa, and South and East Asia is that it’s common there as well. It’s definitely not a US only phenomenon.