minimum wage
noun
the lowest wage payable to employees in general or to designated employees as fixed by law or by union agreement.
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minimum wage
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minimum-wage
minimum-wageadjectiveof or relating to a minimum wage.
minimum wage
1 Americannoun
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minimum wages
plural
minimum-wage
2
American
[min-uh-muhm-weyj]
/ ˈmɪn ə məmˈweɪdʒ /
adjective
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of or relating to a minimum wage.
minimum-wage demands.
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paid or earning a minimum wage.
a minimum-wage worker.
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paying a minimum wage.
a minimum-wage job.
minimum wage
British
noun
minimum wage
Cultural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of minimum wage
First recorded in 1855–60
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.
See Examples For:
One reason is that its high minimum wage has raised costs for employers, which in turn are cutting back on unskilled labor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
The council eventually agreed in May to delay implementation of the minimum wage increase by 18 months in exchange for the business coalition withdrawing the gross receipts measure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
The fallout from the 2016 Actors’ Equity Assn. agreement, which imposed an hourly minimum wage for members who perform in Los Angeles County theater with fewer than 100 seats, is still being felt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Businesses have said employer national insurance and minimum wage hikes have made hiring more expensive, particularly for junior staff.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
This seems to be no longer true, for government agencies channel only as many laborers as are needed, and some kind of minimum wage is maintained.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Some of Maysville’s oldest families are like Bare and Huddleston, living on hundreds of acres—far away, some neighbors believe, from the minimum-wage gigs and night shifts of working-class life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Hare coursers were linked to crimes involving significant sums of money, says Lacks-Kelly, not "minimum-wage crimes".
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
And teens are competing with older workers for similar jobs: People age 25 and over accounted for 56.9% of minimum-wage workers in 2024.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026
That minimum-wage job might have been one of the most valuable things that ever happened to me.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
“I don’t need help from nobody, okay? And that li’l minimum-wage job your pops gave me didn’t make nothing happen. I got tired of choosing between lights and food.”
From "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas
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.
