> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs-test.symmetry.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Wage Types

> The categories of wages the STE recognizes and why they matter.

Every wage amount you enter has an assigned **wage type**. Wage types let the engine treat different kinds of pay differently — a bonus is taxed differently than a regular paycheck, and unemployment wages are tracked separately from income-tax wages.

For the full list of wage type identifiers across the Web API, C/Pascal, and Java/.NET interfaces, see the [Wage Types reference](/ste/reference/wage-types).

## Regular and supplemental

Two wage types do most of the work in a calculation:

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Regular" icon="calendar-days">
    Standard period wages — salary, hourly pay. Bracketed taxes (FIT, SIT) annualize these to find the right rate.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Supplemental" icon="gift">
    Bonuses, commissions, and other non-regular pay. Often taxed at a flat supplemental rate or aggregated with regular wages.
  </Card>
</Columns>

For most recurring pay, you simply set the wage type to **Regular**; use **Supplemental** for bonuses and other one-off pay. The other wage types below exist for specific purposes — feeding a particular tax or handling a special category of pay — so you reach for them only when your scenario calls for it.

## Calculation contexts

Because a paycheck can mix regular and supplemental pay, a single tax may calculate in up to three contexts:

| Context               | What it covers                                                                                 |
| --------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Regular-only**      | Tax on the regular wages using the regular calculation method (usually annualized)             |
| **Supplemental-only** | Tax on the supplemental wages using the supplemental method (flat, aggregation, etc.)          |
| **Combined**          | For methods that tax regular and supplemental together, the engine returns a `Combined` result |

<Note>
  `Combined` (value 5) is an **output-only** wage type — you never enter it as input. It appears in results when a tax's calculation method combines wage types. See [Calculation methods](/ste/core-concepts/calculation-methods).
</Note>

## Unemployment and specialized wages

Some wage types exist to feed specific taxes:

* **`FutaGross` / `SutaGross`** — wages specific to federal/state unemployment, which have their own wage bases.
* **`SutaPreviousState` / `SutaPredecessor`** — YTD SUTA wages from another state or a predecessor employer, used to correctly apply the annual SUTA wage base.
* **`MinisterHousingAllowance`** — clergy housing, exempt from FIT but subject to SECA.

<Tip>
  If you don't enter these explicitly, the [wage-defaulting option](/ste/configuration/engine-options) can derive federal, FUTA, and SUTA wages from your regular/supplemental entries automatically.
</Tip>

## Custom wage types

You can define your own wage categories for client-specific pay. **Custom wage-type IDs must be ≥ 100** to avoid colliding with the built-in enum, and you must enable the `Custom_Wage_Type` option.

## Full enum

See [Reference → Wage types](/ste/reference/wage-types) for the complete list of values and names.

## Related

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Gross, subject & taxable wages" href="/ste/core-concepts/wages-gross-subject-and-taxable" icon="money-bill">
    How wages become taxable amounts.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Calculation methods" href="/ste/core-concepts/calculation-methods" icon="calculator">
    How each wage context is taxed.
  </Card>
</Columns>