subsistence wages
Barely enough income
Subsistence wages are pay barely sufficient to cover basic necessities—food, shelter, clothing—with nothing left over for savings or comforts.
The term implies workers trapped at the minimum needed for survival: Factory workers earned subsistence wages that kept them perpetually poor.
The concept figures in economic theory and labor debates about living wages versus mere subsistence.
- povertySevere lack of resources
- below the lineNon-recurring financial items
- cost of livingPrice of basic necessities
- scraping byBarely having enough
- making ends meetEarning enough to survive
breadline · food stamps · paycheck to paycheck · sweatshop · exploitation · dead end job · struggling · hunger · bare necessities · working poor · survival · meager · pittance · nickel and dime · starvation · hardship · factory · grinding
- economicssupply and demand, inflation, GDP, GNP, gross domestic product
- laborlabor, labor union, work, labor force, laborers
- payment in kindin-kind benefits, company scrip
subsistence wagesliving wage
Income covering necessities
fair wages · executive pay · six-figure salary · wealth · prosperity
subsist, subsisted, subsisting, subsists, subsistence, existence, exists, existed, existing