Dear Priyanka,
The consideration payable by the employer in a certain periodicity to the employee for the services rendered by him during that wage period under the contract of employment is the monetary compensation, and it can be called by any name such as wages, salary, pay, and the like. Such words are interchangeably used to denote the consideration which is capable of expression in terms of money. If you critically analyze the term "wages" defined under section 2(vi) of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, certainly you will agree that it is the sum total of all remuneration including allowances payable to the employee for his services at the end of the wage period. Therefore, I feel that unnecessary indulgence in lexical semantics should be avoided in matters of routine compliance with legal provisions. Far-fetched etymological differences in the interpretation of legal terms would certainly lead to confusion only.
For your kind attention, apart from the definition clause under section 2(1)(xxvii), the term wage/wages occurs in several places, viz., sections 7(2), 14(b), 15, 17, 18, etc., in the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1958. So far as I have seen, the term "Pay" has been used only twice in the Act under section 22 "Notice of Removal" and section 23 "Notice by employee" in the context of termination of employment. What is contemplated therein is notice by either party prior to unilateral termination of the contract of employment or the payment of money proportionate to the notice period prescribed. In this connection, I draw your attention to the phrase "normal wages" explained under section 7(2) of the Act in its explanation clause. In the light of the above observation, I do hope that you will agree with me that "notice pay" under the Act means the amount of gross wages payable in lieu of the number of months/days of notice prescribed therein.