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-wayj]
/ 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:
Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers blocked a major highway and clashed with police on Monday, demanding a monthly minimum wage more than double current pay, as protests spread across industrial hubs.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026
Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers blocked a major highway and clashed with police on Monday, demanding a monthly minimum wage more than double their current pay, as protests spread across industrial hubs.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026
In 2024, Labour said it would remove "discriminatory age bands", vowing to end the gap between the adult minimum wage and pay for 18 to 20-year-olds.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
Austin said increases to the minimum wage and employer National Insurance Contributions following the previous Budget had cost Burgerism about £150,000 a year.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026
That came to almost eight dollars an hour—which my dad said was a lot more than I’d make minimum wage at McDonald’s.
From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings
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
Petro’s tenure was defined by clashes with Trump, a state takeover of healthcare, and labor-market revisions popular with Cepeda’s base, including a 23% minimum-wage increase.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
An immigrant from China who arrived at age 7, he worked a minimum-wage job as a grocery-bagger in high school and went to college on a state scholarship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
