payroll

noun

1. A list of employees who receive salary or wages, together with the amounts due to each.

   “Magazines kept aristocrats on the payroll to facilitate access to jet-set playgrounds like Corfu and Mustique.”

2. The total sum of money paid to employees.
3. The calculation of salaries and wages and the deduction of taxes etc.; the department in a company responsible for this.
4. (euphemistic)Bribes paid to people.

   “I know that the deal started with the boys in Santiago, because they’ve been on the d’Anconia pay roll for centuries — well, no, ‘pay roll’ is an honorable word, it would be more exact to say that d’Anconia Copper has been paying them protection money for centuries — isn't that what your gangsters call it?”

   “We can spread a rumor this cop was dirty. Look, Tom, we have newspaper people on the payroll, don't we?”

verb

1. (transitive)To place on a payroll (noun sense 1).

   “Grantees may elect to payroll the enrollees through their own payroll system if the payroll system is consistent with regulations contained herein.”