starvation wage
Poverty-level earnings
A starvation wage is pay so low that workers can barely afford basic necessities like food and shelter.
The term emphasizes that such wages keep people at subsistence level: Factory workers were paid starvation wages while owners lived in mansions.
Often used in labor advocacy and discussions of economic inequality.
Insultingly small payment
- meagerDeficient in quantity
- paltryContemptibly meager
- insufficientBelow required quantity
- scantBarely adequate amount
subsistence · minimal · barebones · skimpy · deficient · inadequate · nominal · sparse
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- impoverishmentState of extreme deprivation
- penuryExtreme lack of money
- indigenceExtreme poverty, total want
- privationLack of necessities
deprivation · hardship · squalor · hand-to-mouth · food insecurity · malnutrition · hunger · homelessness
Exploitative manufacturing workplace
- underpaidGiven inadequate wages
- overworkedLaboring beyond healthy limits
- worker exploitationMistreating employees for profit
- exploitativeUnfairly using others' vulnerabilities
corporate greed · profit margins · union busting · oppression · child labor · indentured
Reasonable compensation for work
- labor rightsEmployees' legal workplace entitlements
- economic justiceFair allocation of resources
- collective bargainingJoint worker-employer talks
- unionizationForming a labor collective
pay equity · income inequality · protest · social justice · labor movement · advocacy · strike
pittance
Insultingly small payment
- meagerDeficient in quantity
- paltryContemptibly meager
- insufficientBelow required quantity
scant · subsistence · minimal · barebones · skimpy · deficient · inadequate · nominal · sparse · trifling
destitution
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- impoverishmentState of extreme deprivation
- penuryExtreme lack of money
- indigenceExtreme poverty, total want
privation · deprivation · hardship · squalor · hand-to-mouth · food insecurity · malnutrition · hunger · homelessness · want
sweatshop
Exploitative manufacturing workplace
- underpaidGiven inadequate wages
- overworkedLaboring beyond healthy limits
- worker exploitationMistreating employees for profit
exploitative · corporate greed · profit margins · union busting · oppression · child labor · indentured
fair pay
Reasonable compensation for work
- labor rightsEmployees' legal workplace entitlements
- economic justiceFair allocation of resources
- collective bargainingJoint worker-employer talks
unionization · pay equity · income inequality · protest · social justice · labor movement · advocacy · strike
starvation wageliving wage
Income covering necessities
fair wage · high income · subsistence wage · executive compensation
starvation wagetop dollar
Maximum purchase amount
executive compensation · six-figure salary · king's ransom · golden parachute · windfall
starvation, wage, starve, starved, starving, starveling, wages, waged, waging