# pay (economic)

give resource to another in return for goods or work

- Computed level: L16 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: economic  ·  Arena: pay

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [resource](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-resource.material), [products](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-products.goods), [work](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-work.effort), [give](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-give.transfer), [return](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-return.movement)

**Through:** resource is transferred from one person to another as a return for goods or effort applied.

**Novel properties:**
- reciprocal exchange
- directed resource flow
- value-for-value transfer

## Examples
- In 2023, Amazon paid $16,000 in wages to a warehouse worker in Kent, Washington, for 40 hours of sorting and packing goods. *(economics)*
- The International Space Station receives regular shipments of water and oxygen from NASA, paid for through interagency resource transfers. *(engineering)*
- A bee exchanges nectar with a flower by depositing pollen, effectively paying a metabolic cost to enable pollination and future reproduction. *(biology)*

## Used by
- [commission](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-commission.transaction) (L18)
- [customer](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-customer.economic) (L18)
- [employment](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-employment.economic) (L19)
- [insurance](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-insurance.financial) (L18)
- [jobs](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-jobs.employment) (L18)
- [pro](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-pro.professional) (L21)
- [sale](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-sale.commercial) (L19)
- [sponsored](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-sponsored.financial) (L18)
- [tax](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-tax.economic) (L18)

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-pay.economic*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-pay.economic.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*