when referring to personal or household income gross earnings are generally the first line of an employee s pay stub this is followed by income and payroll taxes and other deductions such as employer sponsored health insurance life insurance and retirement benefits once these deductions are accounted for the employer lists the employee s net earnings or income on the bottom of the paystub and on their paycheck 
things work a little differently for businesses when it comes to the business world the term refers to the amount of money left from a public company s total revenue once the cogs is deducted also referred to as gross profit it is the income a company earns before any adjustments and other deductions such as taxes these other costs such as administrative expenses are not included and fall under a company s operating income gross earnings on business income statementsa company s gross earnings are reported periodically on its income statement the first line of the income statement reports a company s total sales and revenues for a given time period while the cogs and gross earnings often appear on the second and third lines of many income statements the difference between revenue and cogs is a company s gross earnings the cogs includes costs directly related to the company s product such as once a business calculates its gross earnings it may subtract the rest of its business expenses including costs such as utilities loan repayments office supplies contractor fees and many other expenses indirect costs are not included in a company s cost of goods sold gross earnings vs adjusted gross income agi for tax purposes the internal revenue service irs distinguishes gross earnings and adjusted gross income agi gross income includes all of the money you earn through the year including wages income from a business alimony payments rental income interest and a few other types of payments the irs allows taxpayers to take a select number of above the line deductions from gross income and these include certain expenses incurred by educators eligible moving expenses contributions to ira accounts as well as a few others the difference between your gross income and these deductions is your agi 