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

In Ohio last year, Clipboard Health and Shiftkey, another matching platform, supported a bill that would reclassify gig nurses as independent contractors, removing minimum wage obligations, according to the report. —Tristan Bove, Fortune, 23 Apr. 2026

At present, three months’ worth of minimum wage does not amount to even a single dollar. —Cnn Staff, CNN Money, 23 Apr. 2026

During her 2024 Senate campaign, Porter supported a California minimum wage of $25 an hour, indexed to inflation. —Ben Paviour, Sacbee.com, 22 Apr. 2026

Even the Hammurabi Code, a set of laws created by the sixth Babylonian king in approximately 1760 bce, established forerunners of today’s interest rate and minimum wage laws. —Chris Roush, Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Apr. 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