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wage earner

See more synonyms for wage earner on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person who works for wages, especially a laborer.
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Origin of wage earner

First recorded in 1880–85
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

breadwinner, employee, jobholder, staffer, wageworker

Examples from the Web for wage earner

Historical Examples

  • He is obliged to offer himself as a wage-earner or a tenant.

    The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917

    Various

  • At the age of fifteen Charles embarked again on his career as a wage-earner.

    Victorian Worthies

    George Henry Blore

  • For the wage-earner cannot live without his wage, and the wage was not forthcoming.

    The Conquest of Bread

    Peter Kropotkin

  • She liked the personal independence which was accorded her as a wage-earner.

    Song of the Lark

    Willa Cather

  • But a new force had come into American politics—the wage-earner.

British Dictionary definitions for wage earner

wage earner

US wage worker

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
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012