starvation wage
1
6.5
- noun
:
salario de miseria
- Many workers in the agriculture industry are forced to accept starvation wages that barely allow them to survive.
Examples
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Although cane sugar requires less processing, harvesting sugar cane is back-breaking, dirty, sweaty work that is primarily done by workers in underdeveloped countries who are paid a starvation wage.
Blog text (5) -
The report highlighted how large corporations often pay their employees starvation wages, leading to widespread poverty.
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The elements identified by CELAM in 1979, such as a lack of adequate housing, starvation wages, unemployment and underemployment, and compulsory mass migrations, remain "a scandal and a contradiction to Christian existence" today.
Academic text (2010) -
McKemy encapsulated this conjunction of race, citizenship, and class: "The simple and sordid truth is that employers of labor prefer to recruit Mexican labor because they can be induced to work for starvation wages."
Academic text (2002) -
Advocacy groups are campaigning against starvation wages, arguing that every worker deserves a fair and livable income.
Antonyms
How Low
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward noun–noun composition where 'starvation' (severe lack of food) modifies 'wage' (payment), so its meaning 'a wage so low it causes hunger' is directly inferable from the constituents. This construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g. 'salario de hambre', 'salaire de misère') and follows normal compositional patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words will very likely understand it.
Etymology
Starvation wage combines starvation and wage to paint a picture of pay so low that workers could 'starve'. That's why the phrase means pay that is not enough to meet basic needs like food and housing.