Wiktionary

minimum wage

English

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WOTD – 28 April 2024

Etymology

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From minimum (adjective) +‎ wage.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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minimum wage (usually uncountable, plural minimum wages)

  1. (economics) The lowest rate at which an employer must legally pay an employee, usually expressed as pay per hour.
    Antonym: maximum wage
    Coordinate terms: living wage, slave wage
    • 1812 July 25, [James Maitland, 8th] Earl of Lauderdale, “Frame Work Knitters’ Bill”, in T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, editor, The Parliamentary Debates […] (House of Lords), volume XXIII, London: […] T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, […]; for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown; [et al.], →OCLC, columns 1248–1249:
      A part of the Bill went to interfere in the bargains made between the master manufacturer and his workmen, upon a principle which could not fail to produce the most mischievous consequences; and he could not help observing, with relation to this point, that the idea of some persons, that a minimum of wages would be beneficial to the workmen employed, was the most mistaken notion that had ever been conceived, for the inevitable consequence must be, that in the case of a slackness of work, the masters would discharge their workers altogether, rather than employ them at the minimum wages.
    • 1846 April, “Mr. [Robert James] Walker’s Report and Bill”, in George H[ooker] Colton, editor, The American Review: A Whig Journal of Politics, Literature, Art and Science, volume III, number IV, New York, N.Y.: George H. Colton, […], →OCLC, page 345, column 2:
      The man who before found nothing to do now finds employment at some rate; while he who formerly worked for the minimum wages of mere labor will now, if energetic and skillful, find employment in some other capacity where his earnings will be largely increased.
    • 1896 June 1, Harrison Ord, “The Sweating System”, in Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories, Work-rooms, and Shops, for the Year 1895. […], Melbourne, Vic.: Rob[er]t S. Brain, government printer, →OCLC, page 21:
      The only remedy I can suggest is the adoption of a minimum wage for all employés in registered factories. […] If a minimum wage of, say, 2s. 6d. was required to be paid in all factories, the greatest evils of the so-called apprentice system would vanish.
    • 1915 April, Cha[rle]s H[enry] Verrill, “Introduction and Summary”, in Minimum-wage Legislation in the United States and Foreign Countries (Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics; Miscellaneous Series; no. 8 (whole no. 167)), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 6:
      The minimum-wage law, as it has been known in recent American discussion, and as it is usually understood in Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, does not refer to a law in which is fixed a single rate below which no worker may be employed, although such laws are in existence in most of the Australasian States. The minimum wage, as understood in this country and Great Britain, is a wage fixed by some agency created by law, after due investigation has been made.
    • 2004 April 29, Todd Akin, Would an Increase in the Federal Minimum Wage Help or Hinder Small Business? Hearing before the Subcommittee on Workforce, Empowerment & Government Programs of the Committee on Small Business, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eighth Congress, Second Session […] (Serial No. 108-61), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →ISBN, page 1:
      The subject of the hearing today is the question on the proposed changes in the federal minimum wage on small businesses and their employees. […] The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established a federal minimum wage of 25 cents an hour for most workers. […] The current basic minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, with a lower wage for tipped employees, certain new hires under the age of 20 and full-time students who work part-time.
    • 2012 March 15, Scott Tobias, “The Kid with a Bike [film review]”, in The A.V. Club‎[1], archived from the original on 2023-09-21:
      Perhaps their most austere film, 1999’s Palme D'Or-winning Rosetta, tracks the feisty eponymous 17-year-old from a trailer park, where she lives with her alcoholic mother, to a food truck in the industrial wasteland of Seraing, Belgium. She makes less than the minimum wage, if she's lucky enough to work at all.
    • 2016 February 16, Peter van Buren, quotee, “What Ordinary People Say”, in Anne C. Cunningham, editor, Critical Perspectives on the Minimum Wage, New York, N.Y.: Enslow Publishing, published 2017, →ISBN, page 148:
      At the store where I worked for minimum wage a few years ago, for instance, hours were capped at 39 a week. The company did that as a way to avoid providing the benefits that would kick in once one became a "full time" employee.
      Quoting “Nickel and Dimed in 2016: You Can’t Earn a Living on the Minimum Wage”, from TomDispatch.com (February 16, 2016).

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “minimum wage, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “minimum wage, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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