Wages is basically the income that one earns for a particular period. However, in the context of HR and Payroll. Wages is usually being linked together with other statutory payment, such as EPF wages, OT wages, SOCSO wages et cetera.
For example, EPF wages mean those income that are liable to EPF, in other words, any income that is considered as EPF wages, employee and employer will need to contribute to EPF. Simaliarly, if a certain allowance (such as meal allowance) is considered as OT wages, it mean this allowance will be calculated as part of the OT wages that one earns.