Legally there is hardly any difference between Wages and Salary. In fact, by whatever name called, any remuneration paid to an employee will be treated as 'salary' or 'wages'. However, separate treatment is needed in accounts to show the factory cost, cost of production and like. Therefore, remuneration paid to employees who are directly involved in production and whose services can be attributed directly to a cost centre are taken as 'wages' or labour cost (in Cost Sheet) and those remuneration, say amount paid to clerical staff, supervisors whose duty is to supervise a team of employees, managers etc are taken as 'salary' (included in administrative overhead). In final accounts the wages will be show as debited to Trading A/C whereas salary will be debited to Profit & Loss A/C.
There can also be a presumption that amount paid piece rated or on daily rated are treated as Wages and amount paid on monthly basis are treated as salary.
Similarly, wages may be variable, depending upon the unit of production and as such it will be a direct/ variabel cost whereas salary will be fixed and common for the entire units of production.
Moreover, the above classification will have bearing mainly in manufacturing units and not in service industry.
Regards,
Madhu.T.K  | 
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