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

On the one hand, federal regulators enforced a minimum wage, child labor laws and strict standards for occupational safety and health in American industries. —Daniel De Visé, USA Today, 29 Nov. 2025

When the state of California mandated a 25% minimum wage increase for fast food and health care workers, the cost for those products and services went up. —Kelly Seyarto, Oc Register, 29 Nov. 2025

Ngerng added that the current government has been steadily increasing the minimum wage. —John Liu, CNN Money, 28 Nov. 2025

The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that the average minimum wage worker would need to work nearly three full-time jobs just to afford a modest two-bedroom rental. —Lee Saunders, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Nov. 2025

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