No, Salary Is Not Necessarily Better Than Wages

The word wages might be used as an informal reference for all compensation in general, but it can be used more precisely as a reference to hourly payments at a fixed rate (other than overtime and the like).  Wages are in contrast to salaries: fixed yearly pay that is distributed in equal or almost equal portions every pay period that do not depend on hours worked.  There are in some cases cultural pressures for people to choose jobs with salaries by default over those with wages, and this is utterly irrational.  As an aside, task-based compensation is not the focus here, though similar truths are the case.

A salary could be low, unable to cover the mandatory expenses of modern civilization even as it grants employers additional leeway with taking the free time of workers.  Salaries workers might work unpaid overtime despite having greater demands placed on them and less flexibility in their core schedule.  As appealing as they are presented to be, sometimes in an illusory way, salaried jobs are not necessarily anything but cages with softer-looking pillows inside.

Aside from the other artificial limitations that might come with a salary, is not as if there is anything about a salaried role that makes it automatically superior to hourly roles on the basis on compensation alone.  Someone making $30 an hour for a typical 40 hour workweek, every week in a year, earns more than $60,000 annually, whereas a salary could be set at $33,000 a year.  Pay, the most important part of a job as far as the reasons to work are concerned, is not necessarily high or low for either an hourly or salaried position.

Salary does bring some protections, albeit limited ones, such as compensation for each pay period remaining stable even if hours are cut.  The same thing that allows for more than ordinary working hours without more pay also allows for fewer than normal working hours to receive the same pay.  However, high hourly compensation can be accompanied by far greater flexibility, similar or greater pay (at the very least livable wages), and less responsibility and scrutiny from employers (this last part can depend upon the job, though).

The push by certain people to secure salaries over hourly wages without any other goal than this is rooted more in the delusional, meaningless pursuit of prestige than anything else.  Yes, salaries might be regarded more highly than hourly compensation by some people, but this is because of assumption (for demonstrably false ideas, no less) and the conflation of corporate status and the worth of people as humans.  Salary is absolutely not better than the alternative by necessity.  Certain salaries are better than certain wages.