What is the difference between nominal & real wages?

Basically, "Real" means you take inflation into effect. Nominal and Real are used a lot with GDP but in terms of wages, lets suppose last year you made 45,000 dollars and this year you made 46,000. Your nominal wage is higher, but inflation usually goes up around 3% a year -which means it cost more money to buy the same things. So the 46,000 you made this year is worth less than the 45,000 you made last year. So your "Real" wage would actually be lower.