minimum wage

noun

1

: living wage

2

: the lowest wage paid or permitted to be paid

specifically : a wage fixed by legal authority or by contract as the least that may be paid either to employed persons generally or to a particular category of employed persons

Examples of minimum wage in a Sentence

Congress will vote on a bill to raise the minimum wage.

Recent Examples on the Web

To comfortably afford that unit, someone would need to earn roughly $47 an hour, or $97,000 a year — well above Florida’s $14 minimum wage, a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows. — Max Klaver, Miami Herald, 23 July 2026

Corson said raising the minimum wage and building more housing are both part of the solution for improving affordability. — Matthew Kelly, Kansas City Star, 22 July 2026

Florida law will raise the minimum wage for all non-tipped employees to $15 later this year. — Lily Wright, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2026

Policy proposals such as raising the minimum wage can have a modest impact, at best, on the wealth gap. — Peter Georgescu, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for minimum wage

• alienage
• age
• gauge
• phage
• plage
• rage
• stage
• assuage
• backstage
• bocage
• downstage
• engage

Kids Definition

minimum wage

noun

: a wage fixed (as by law) as the least that may be paid to employed persons

Legal Definition

minimum wage

noun

: a wage fixed by contract or especially by law as the least that may be paid either to employees generally or to a particular category of employees compare scale