Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. The lowest rate at which an employer can legally pay an employee; usually expressed as pay per hour.
WordNet
n. the lowest wage that an employer is allowed to pay; determined by contract or by law
Wikipedia
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the price floor below which workers may not sell their labor. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in many jurisdictions, differences of opinion exist about the benefits and drawbacks of a minimum wage. Supporters of the minimum wage say it increases the standard of living of workers, reduces poverty, reduces inequality, boosts morale and forces businesses to be more efficient. In contrast, opponents of the minimum wage say it increases poverty, increases unemployment (particularly among unskilled or inexperienced workers) and is damaging to businesses, because excessively high minimum wages require businesses to raise the prices of their product or service to accommodate the extra expense of paying a higher wage.
Usage examples of "minimum wage".
This reliance on teenage labor by the major franchised chains and minimum wage pay structure further lowered the status and desirability of working in a fast-food restaurant.
He warned me, 'This job pays minimum wage and there are no raises.
As Irving Kristol said, a liberal is a person who sees a fourteen-year-old girl performing live sex acts onstage and wonders if she's being paid the minimum wage.
Take a guy living on the streets, in and out of shelters, working somewhere for minimum wage, trying his best to step up and become self-sufficient.
Half the increase was necessary just to get the minimum wage (after inflation) back to what it had been in 1991, the last time it was raised.
Indeed, some young labor economists had recently found that a moderate minimum wage increase might lead to a modest increase—.
I had recently seen a television interview with a minimum wage worker in a factory in southwest Virginia.
Take a guy living on thestreets, in and out of shelters, working somewhere for minimum wage,trying his best to step up and become self-sufficient.
It won't add up to more than five or six hours, but I'll certainly pay you minimum wage.
In such cases, the minimum wage did not apply, and the lisping, retarded girl told Jack with unfeigned awe that she was getting a dollar and twenty-five cents each hour, and all for her.