above one's paygrade
above one's paygrade prepositional phrase: not suitable for one in one's current rank in an organization; suitable for someone more senior, implying that one is not competent enough or not paid well enough to deal with the problem.
Prepositional phrase
- Not suitable for one in one's current rank in an organization; suitable for someone more senior, implying that one is not competent enough or not paid well enough to deal with the problem.
- I don't know how you explain to someone that "Nigger Toes" is offensive. It's above my paygrade. On some level, I feel like it's explaining basic manners.2011 October 4, Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Sprawling Chasm”, in The Atlantic
- Will there ever be another Parks and Rec reunion? wryape
I doubt it, but that’s above my pay grade.2026 April 23, Rich Pelley, quoting Adam Scott, “Severance star Adam Scott: ‘There’s nothing wrong with being told that you resemble Tom Cruise’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Questions about above one's paygrade
- What does above one's paygrade mean?
- Above one's paygrade means not suitable for one in one's current rank in an organization; suitable for someone more senior, implying that one is not competent enough or not paid well enough to deal with the problem.
- What part of speech is above one's paygrade?
- Above one's paygrade is a prepositional phrase.
Words near above one's paygrade in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: above one's paygrade (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “above one's paygrade.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/above_one%27s_paygrade. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.