Minimum Wage

lowest wage or salary that the law will allow

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers. First enacted in Australia and New Zealand in the late nineteenth century, minimum wage laws are now in force in more than 90% of all countries.While many supporters assert that the minimum wage is a matter of social justice that helps reduce exploitation and ensures workers can afford what they consider to be basic necessities, a 2000 survey by Dan Fuller and Doris Geide-Stevenson reports that of a sample of 308 American Economic Association economists, 73.5% of economists agreed, either in full or with provisos, with the statement, "a minimum wage increases unemployment among young and unskilled workers." Also in 1896 in Victoria, Australia, an amendment to the Factories Act provided for the creation of a wages board. The wages board did not set a universal minimum wage, but set basic wages for six industries that were considered to pay low wages.. First enacted as a four-year experiment, the wages board was renewed in 1900 and made permanent in 1904. By that time it covered 150 different industries. By 1902, other Australian states, such as New South Wales and Western Australia, had also formed wages boards.
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Noun
1. the lowest wage that an employer is allowed to pay; determined by contract or by law
(hypernym) wage, pay, earnings, remuneration, salary

the lowest hourly wage that an employer can legally pay an employee; £3.60 in the UK.