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

California voters also adopted a proposition that increases penalties for certain drug and theft crimes while rebuffing a measure to raise the state’s minimum wage to $18 an hour. —Kate Rogers, CNBC, 25 Nov. 2024

Buffalo, New York is the only city that comes even close due to the state's $15 minimum wage and the city's lower average rent. —Karri Peifer, Axios, 25 Nov. 2024

This traces back to the flight of good factory jobs, the shift to lower-paying service jobs, the erosion of union muscle, and the failure of many states and the federal government to raise the minimum wage. —Michael Posner, Forbes, 21 Nov. 2024

The first measure would raise the minimum wage from $16 per hour to $18 per hour for all businesses by 2026. —Jason Green, The Mercury News, 16 Nov. 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