Take-home pay
Etymology
A plain twentieth-century compound: the pay you actually take home, once employer withholding has removed taxes and contributions. It gave everyday language a name for the gap between headline salary and real spendable money, a gap that grew as payroll withholding spread.
noun phrase · /TAYK-hohm PAY/
The amount of your wages that actually reaches you after taxes and other deductions are withheld.
What it names
The number that matters for daily life — what truly lands in your account, as opposed to the larger figure on the job offer.
Example
The raise sounded generous until higher tax withholding left his take-home pay barely changed.
Related idea
This is the heart of gross versus net: gross pay is the full amount you earn before deductions, while take-home (net) pay is what remains — budgeting on the gross figure is how people overcommit their money.