[bianca]

As Casiopea said, a wage is more of an established pay for a particular job usually on an hourly/weekly basis, as opposed to a salary (a fixed compenasation on a regular basis). It fluctuates with inflation. I believe it's synonym with paycheck, in AE.

As a trans. verb, to wage means to engage in smth (wage a battle against, wage a war against, wage a campaign...).

"wages" - unless as a plural for wage, as mentioned above, also has the figurative meaning of reward, recompense (like in "the wages of disobedience, of war, of sin, of life/ death - followed by the singular verb is).

Ex.

1. The wages of disobedience is death/ruin...

as opposed to:

2. What are your wages / how much do you earn?

Have you seen the movie "The wages of fear?".