living wage

English

Noun

living wage (plural living wages)

1. (economics) The minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs.

   Coordinate terms: minimum wage, slave wage, maximum wage

   • 2019 October 23, Rail, page 13:

     The RMT union is claiming a "massive victory" after outsourcing company Mitie agreed to pay the living wage to employees working at Network Rail stations. It follows a campaign by the union to improve pay, with RMT General Secretary Mick Cash commenting: "This is a massive victory in the fight to eliminate the evil of low pay on the railway, [...]."

Usage notes

Whereas a minimum wage is the minimum that is legal in a given jurisdiction, a living wage is the minimum that is adequate to prevent destitution, whose cutoff value is subjective but is sometimes operationally defined using economic statistics in similar ways as poverty lines are defined.

Related terms

• make a living
• wage slavery

 

Translations

minimum income

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 維生工資／维生工资 (wéishēng gōngzī)

• Estonian: elatusmiinimum
• Finnish: toimeentuloon riittävä palkka
• Georgian: საარსებო მინიმუმი (saarsebo minimumi)
• German: Existenzminimum (de) n, Notbedarf m, Armutsgrenze (de) f
• Korean: 생활임금(生活賃金) (ko) (saenghwarimgeum)
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: salario mínimo (es), pasadía (es)

References

• “living wage”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “living wage”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.