wage earner

noun

1. a person who works for wages, especially a laborer.

wage earner

noun

1. a person who works for wages, esp as distinguished from one paid a salary
2. the person who earns money to support a household by working

Word History and Origins

Origin of wage earner¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

His ideas took hold, requiring ever more managers to watch the workers and the number of supervisors grew at more than double the rate of wage earners.

From Time

To grasp how low the personal tax burden of the country’s richest Americans is compared with typical wage earners, you also need to count other forms of federal taxes.

From ProPublica

Creature’s Cullen-Shute wanted to take SPL following the birth of his son in 2015, but being the higher wage earner meant it wasn’t viable.

From Digiday

The census indicates that Lawrence is the employer and Willie is a wage earner on his father’s farm.

From Washington Post

While restaurant wine sales took a hit that will resonate for years, sales overall benefited from the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on lower-income wage earners.

From Washington Post

More than 36 percent have only one wage earner, and nearly 80 percent have no wage earners at all.

From The Daily Beast

It is followed by forty-four pages of argument and illustration relating exclusively to the able-bodied wage-earner.

From Project Gutenberg

The handsome sister is the younger; she never, when she was a wage-earner, went through the streets alone.

From Project Gutenberg

The independent wage-earner found his hope of political recognition in allegiance to the political machines.

From Project Gutenberg

Mention the trouble if the man of the house is sick and out of work, and there is no other wage earner.

From Project Gutenberg

Where before he had been a subaltern not always even a wage-earner—now all in a moment he had been transformed into a high chief.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• blue collar
• blue-collar worker
• breadwinner