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nominal wages

plural noun

: wages measured in money as distinct from actual purchasing power

Examples of nominal wages in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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September data showed that nominal wages climbed 1.9% year on year, while real wages declined 1.4%. Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 7 Nov. 2025 Together, employees’ real disposable income, after accounting for cost-sharing, has effectively declined even as nominal wages grew. Virgil Bretz, Forbes.com, 21 July 2025 While nominal wages increased by 5.1 percent in 2022, real wages actually dropped by 1.7 percent. John Yoo and John Shu, Newsweek, 23 Jan. 2025 This means that even though Americans’ nominal wages have increased, their real wages have declined as their dollars buy less. Ron Paul, Orange County Register, 5 Mar. 2024 See All Example Sentences for nominal wages

Word History

First Known Use

1814, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of nominal wages was in 1814

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Cite this Entry

“Nominal wages.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominal%20wages. Accessed 1 Dec. 2025.

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