starvation wages
Americanplural noun
Etymology
Origin of starvation wages
First recorded in 1885–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Unions and workers complain of "starvation wages" which have been frozen since 2022.
From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026
The median Googler earned $279,802, hardly starvation wages.
From New York Times • Jun. 30, 2023
Nobody ever came to America with a starry-eyed dream of working for starvation wages.
From The Guardian • Sep. 17, 2016
Which in turn added pressure for senators to, you know, do something to make sure the people who serve them food and clean their toilets earn better than starvation wages.
From Washington Post • Mar. 24, 2016
The past was dead; the future was their own, even in the Allen-street tenement, toiling night and day at starvation wages.
From Out of Mulberry Street Stories of Tenement life in New York City by Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
