SAP Wage Types Tutorial: Primary, Secondary, Dialog, Time

⚡ Smart Summary

SAP Wage Types store payment data such as allowances and deductions in payroll. They fall into two prime categories: primary (master) wage types, which include dialog and time wage types, and secondary (technical) wage types generated during the payroll run.

💰 Purpose: Wage types store all payment data – allowances, deductions, and results – used throughout SAP payroll.
🗂️ Two Categories: Primary (master) wage types are entered by users; secondary (technical) wage types are system generated.
✍️ Dialog Wage Types: These primary wage types are entered online in infotypes such as Basic Pay (0008) and Recurring Payments (0014).
⏱️ Time Wage Types: These primary wage types are generated automatically by the system after time evaluation.
🔧 Secondary Wage Types: Created during the payroll run, their technical names begin with “/”, such as /559 for bank transfer.

What are Wage Types in SAP?

Payment data (allowances or deductions) is stored using Wage Types. Wage types are the building blocks of SAP payroll, holding every amount that is paid to or deducted from an employee.

There are two prime categories of Wage Types in SAP:

Primary / Master Wage Types
Secondary / Technical Wage Types

Primary Wage Types

Primary (or Master) Wage Types are further divided into two kinds: Dialog Wage Types and Time Wage Types.

Dialog Wage Types

These are Wage Types that you can enter online while maintaining Master Data in your SAP system. For example: Basic Pay (IT0008), Additional Payments (IT0015), and Recurring Payments/Deductions (IT0014).

Time Wage Types

Time Wage Types are created by the system once time evaluation is completed. They cannot be maintained online and are system generated. For example: Paid Leave 75%.

Secondary Wage Types

Secondary Wage Types are system generated and cannot be maintained online. They are created during the Payroll run. Secondary Wage Types are also used as a container to accumulate several other Wage Types or to store wage type information on a temporary basis. The technical names of the secondary Wage Types begin with “/”. For example: /559 Bank Transfer.

Primary vs. Secondary Wage Types

The table below summarizes the key differences between primary and secondary wage types:

Aspect	Primary Wage Types	Secondary Wage Types
Also called	Master wage types	Technical wage types
Created by	Entered by the user (dialog) or generated after time evaluation	Generated by the system during the payroll run
Maintained online	Dialog: yes; Time: no	No
Technical name	Numeric or customer-defined	Begins with “/”
Example	Basic Pay (0008), Paid Leave 75%	/559 Bank Transfer

FAQs

AI assistants can suggest wage type settings, generate documentation, and check configurations against best practices. They speed up setup and reduce mistakes, but a functional consultant should always validate the configuration before it reaches a production system.

Yes. Machine learning can compare current payroll results against historical patterns to flag wage types with unusual values, missing amounts, or unexpected accumulations. A payroll analyst still reviews each flagged case before correcting it.

Secondary (technical) wage types begin with a forward slash, such as /559. Customer wage types usually start with a number or letter in the customer name range (for example, 1xxx or Mxxx), keeping them separate from SAP-standard wage types.

Yes. You create custom wage types by copying a similar SAP-standard model wage type in configuration, then adjusting its characteristics. Using the customer name range keeps custom wage types safe during system upgrades.