Is there a general word for such people?

Have you got something against dictionaries, Kef?

wage: "1. Payment for labor or services to a worker, especially remuneration on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis or by the piece."

http://www.bartleby.com/61/51/W0005100.html

wage (MONEY) Show phonetics
noun [S]
a fixed amount of money that is paid, usually every week, to an employee, especially one who does work that needs physical skills or strength, rather than a job needing a college education:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=88783&dict=CALD

Perhaps my definition isn't all-encompassing, but when a distinction is made between "wages" and a "salary", that's what I generally understand the distinction to be: wages depend on how much time you actually work, whereas a salary does not.

<Perhaps my definition isn't all-encompassing, but when a distinction is made between "wages" and a "salary", that's what I generally understand the distinction to be: wages depend on how much time you actually work, whereas a salary does not. >

If you want to buy salt, that is.

<SALARY, a payment for services rendered, usually a stipulated sum paid monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly, and for a permanent or lengthy term of employment. It is generally contrasted with "wages," a term applied to weekly or daily payment for manual services. As laid down by Bowen, L. J., (1892)) r Q.B. 529, "Salary means a definite payment for personal services under some contract and computed by time." The Latin salarium meant originally salt money (Lat. sal, salt), i.e. the sum paid to soldiers for salt. In post-Augustan Latin the word was applied to any allowance, pension or stipend. >

Note "contrasted with" and "computed by time".