minimum wage

noun

1

: living wage

2

: the lowest wage paid or permitted to be paid

specifically : a wage fixed by legal authority or by contract as the least that may be paid either to employed persons generally or to a particular category of employed persons

Examples of minimum wage in a Sentence

Congress will vote on a bill to raise the minimum wage.

Recent Examples on the Web

The contract’s annual minimum wage increases are 3 percent in the first year of the contract and two percent in the second and third years, and the agreement provides time and a half pay for work assigned on a holiday. —Katie Kilkenny, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 June 2024

The minimum wage for most people in California is $16 per hour, which is already among the highest in the nation. —Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 22 June 2024

Democratic lawmakers faced a major setback two years ago when the Department of Finance pinned a hefty cost to the bill and suggested that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would have to begin paying its 65,000 working prisoners minimum wage. —Anabel Sosa, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2024

An instructor also explained minimum wage and hourly pay. —Daniella Silva, NBC News, 18 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

minimum wage

noun

: a wage fixed (as by law) as the least that may be paid to employed persons

Legal Definition

minimum wage

noun

: a wage fixed by contract or especially by law as the least that may be paid either to employees generally or to a particular category of employees compare scale