1183 Pipe Roll 29 Hen. II (1911) 61 Henricus dec' de Wallebi debet .v. m. quia renuit dare wagium et plegium justiciariis.]

1338 R. Mannyng Chron. (1810) 139 He sesed fiue castels, & held þam in his wage.

c1480 (a1400) St. Agnes 400 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 357 Here-of in vitnesyng remanis ay þe forsad ryng one þe fyngire of þat ymag of vad of weding in-to vag.

1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid v. iv. 132 Or thai thar land sul los or vassalage Thai had far levir lay thar lyf in wage.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 286/1 Wage or pledge, gaige.

1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. iv. sig. D5^v But th'Elfin knight, which ought that warlike wage, Disdaind to loose the meed he wonne in fray.

c1400 Laud Troy Bk. 8476 So it was seyde to the Emperoure..How ffight was taken hem be-twene, And no man myȝt here ire a-swage And thei hadde ȝeuen to-gedur wage.

1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. ccxvii. 113 And y^e same season ther was a wage of batel before the french king, betwene two noble and expert knightes.

1338 R. Mannyng Chron. (1810) 319 Ilk man þou reft his wage.

a1400 Coer de L. 4264 Ther was non so lytyl page, That ne hadde to hys wage, Off gold and sylvyr [etc.].

c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 513/1 Wage, or hyre, stipendium, salarium.

1510 in I. S. Leadam Select Cases Star Chamber (1911) II. 73 Lewed & evyll disposed persons..to whom..the seid Priour gave wage vjd by the day.

1522 Worlde & Chylde (de Worde) (1909) sig. A.iii Whan I was seuen yere of age I was sent to the worlde to take wage And this seuen yere I haue ben his page.

1623 W. Sclater Quæstion of Tythes sig. F5 Dreames any man hee meant it to the Lord as a Wage for his Worke.

1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. x. 177 When masters combine together in order to reduce the wages of their workmen, they commonly enter into a private bond or agreement, not to give more than a certain wage under a certain penalty. View more context for this quotation

1855 W. G. Clark in Cambr. Ess. 287 Millions of childen..must needs commence their life of toil in the factory or the field, as soon as their physical strength enables them to get a day's wage for a day's work.

1877 J. Morley Crit. Misc. 2nd Ser. 204 The labourers, having little heart in work for which they had no wage.

1338 R. Mannyng Chron. (1810) 163 A hundreth knyghtes mo.. & fiue hundreth o fote, to whilk I salle pay Ilk day þer wages.

1436 Rolls of Parl. IV. 499/1 Wages of Werre for the said Soudeours.

c1440 Generydes 2441 With the Sowdon he will take no wage.

1490 W. Caxton tr. Foure Sonnes of Aymon (1885) ix. 216 He..wende that it had ben straunge knyghtes that were come vnto hym to take wages.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) 1 Macc. iii. 28 Kynge Antiochus..opened his treasury, and gaue his hoost a yeares wagies in honde.

1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. ccl^v They also, which..take wages vnder them in this war.

1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan ii. xxx. 181 The Wages, due to them that hold the publique Sword.

?a1400 Morte Arth. 302 I salle the forthire..Fifty thowsande mene,..Of my wage for to wende, whare so the lykes.

c1400 Mandeville's Trav. (1839) v. 38 The Soudan may lede out of Egipt mo than 20000 Men of Armes... And alle tho ben at his Wages.

1420 Waterton in Rymer Fœdera (1709) IX. 883 To come ovyr to zowe at zour Wage, Armyd and Arayde, as langys to thaire Estate to do zowe Service.

1488 (c1478) Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace (Adv.) (1968–9) v. l. 909 Xxx^ti with him off nobill men at wage.

a1533 Ld. Berners tr. A. de Guevara Golden Bk. M. Aurelius (1537) let. v. f. 110 And fynally,..ye entre newely into the wages of the worlde.

1542 N. Udall tr. Erasmus Apophthegmes f. 187 When he espyed one of the souldiers..trymmyng a strop or loope to sette on his darte, he putte out of wages, and discharged of his roume.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VI f. lxxxviii Many of the Britons..submitted them selues to the lorde regent..whom he gentely accepted and put them in wages.

1551 R. Robinson tr. T. More Vtopia sig. Pii^v For them whomewyth they be in wayges they fyghte hardelye fyerslye, and faythefullye.

1553 J. Brende tr. Q. Curtius Rufus Hist. vi. f. 104 The Greakes that were in his wages.

a1614 J. Melville Autobiogr. & Diary (1842) 318 The King, with companies of horsmen and futtmen under wages.

1665 T. Manley tr. H. Grotius De Rebus Belgicis 73 A mutiny for want of pay: which was an unavoydable evill in those parts, though in wages under a most wealthy King.

c1400 (?c1390) Sir Gawain & Green Knight (1940) l. 396 Þat þou schal seche me þi-self..& foch þe such wages As þou deles me to-day.

c1400 Laud Troy Bk. 3886 Ne were that ȝe come in message, Veleyns dethe schulde be ȝoure wage.

a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Rom. vi. 22 The wagis [1382 hyris] of synne is deth.

c1480 (a1400) St. Lawrence 139 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 406 Fere mare Ioyful wictorag þu sal resawe syne to þi wag.

1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid xii. xii. 175 Na for small wagis thai debait and stryfe, But apoun Turnus blude schedding and lyfe.

1549 M. Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 1 Pet. i. f. ii^v They y^t serue the world goe about to haue rewardes y^t are transitory & wage that is slyppery.

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xxiv. 298 All friends shall tast the wages of their vertue. View more context for this quotation

a1770 J. Jortin Serm. (1787) I. vi. 122 Yet we may shew the same temper..by loving our religion and liberties better than the wages of slavery and iniquity.

1864 A. C. Swinburne Atalanta 2205 The gods give thee fair wage and dues of death.

1915 A. Smellie Lift up your Heart i. 31 He, our Kinsman and Redeemer..bears no relationship to sin any more. He has shaken off its wage and tyranny.

1875 Fraser's Mag. Aug. 186 The new programme of the party states that, in order to effect the emancipation of labour, it is necessary by all legal means to break ‘the iron law of wages’, by abolishing the system of work for wages and every social and political in equality.

1896 R. H. I. Palgrave Dict. Polit. Econ. II. 568/1 He [sc. Lassalle] dwelt on what he called the iron or ‘brazen law’ (ehernes Gesetz) of wages, already laid down by Turgot and Ricardo.

1907 J. S. Nicholson in Cambr. Mod. Hist. X. 774 Ricardo..was credited with the ‘iron law of wages’ on the one side and the theories of the continuous growth of rent and the unearned increment on the other.

1966 A. Gilpin Dict. Econ. Terms 219 Subsistence theory. Of French origin, this ‘iron law’ of wages asserted that if wages rose above subsistence level an increase in population would inevitably follow, thus forcing wages down again to subsistence level.

1919 M. Beer Hist. Brit. Socialism I. ii. v. 169 The total wage bill of the country diminished.

1923 H. W. B. Joseph Labour Theory of Value in Karl Marx ii. 49 If all this is true..a capitalist ought not to be indifferent whether he economizes in his wages-bill or in his other expenditure.

1982 T. Keneally Schindler's Ark viii. 96 The meeting of his wage bill was the least of Oskar's worries.

1925 Scribner's Mag. Oct. 415/2 The regulation of wages has been put in the hands of wage boards.

1930 Economist 22 Mar. 651/1 The success of the Wages Boards..should be carefully considered.

1970 Washington Post 30 Sept. b 11/5 A 6 per cent raise to 850,000 hard-pressed blue-collar (wage board) people.

1865 A. Trollope Can you forgive Her? II. vii. 54 I don't suppose I've opened the wages book half a dozen times since last July.

1960 G. E. Evans Horse in Furrow ix. 115 These wages-books..contained the lists of jobs allocated to people employed on the farm, and the amount of wages due to them.

1971 H. Wilson Labour Govt. xxxviii. 787 One of the main groups of printing unions, SOGAT, put in a large wage-claim.

1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §939 Wages clerk.

1961 Evening Standard 18 July 23/5 Wages clerk to head..wages section.

1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 20 Mar. 1/3 We deny that any wage contract with the miners has been broken.

1977 P. Johnson Enemies of Society iii. 39 The medieval manor..yielded to a cash-nexus society based on wage-contracts between freely-negotiating individuals.

1958 Spectator 4 July 33/3 Wage-cost inflation.

1975 J. De Bres tr. E. Mandel Late Capitalism vi. 203 Economies in costs will thus always be accompanied in the long-run by a relative decrease in the share of wage costs in the value of the commodity.

1925 Daily Herald 30 June 2/4 (heading) Folly of wage-cuts.

1974 J. Aiken Midnight is Place iii. 102 Protests about the wage-cut had been nipped in the bud.

1970 Guardian 2 Mar. 1/2 The biggest disagreement is about the effect of wage demands.

1919 in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1977) IV. Compan. i. 498 The moment the revolt advanced over the line of a pure wage dispute, and the strikers were guilty of a serious breach of the law, then was the moment to act.

1955 W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. i. 322 Not written to be played by men in worn dinner jackets,..involved in wage disputes.

1976 Morecambe Guardian 7 Dec. 21/7 One woman waving a placard saying ‘Wage Inflation’ [etc.].

1871 C. Kingsley At Last xvi Those who cultivate some scrap of ground, or follow some petty occupation, which prevents their depending entirely on wage-labour.

1957 V. W. Turner Schism & Continuity in Afr. Society v. 135 A man can acquire wealth by working in the White economy as a wage labourer.

1928 Britain's Industr. Future (Liberal Industr. Inq.) iii. 139 A wise wage-policy should aim at the highest practicable wage-levels.

1965 M. Hilton tr. J. Meuvret in D. V. Glass & D. E. C. Eversley Population in Hist. xxi. 517 In normal times wage-levels and price-levels were both very low.

1928 Britain's Industr. Future (Liberal Industr. Inq.) iii. xvi. 188 It is not even enough that the wage-system should be just in itself; it must be visibly and demonstrably just. And this conception ought to inspire the whole system of wage-negotiation.

1974 Guardian 23 Jan. 3/1 Today's wage negotiations were conducted with the Frame group.

1951 R. Firth Elements Social Organization iv. 140 One point of view is that the size of the wage-packet remains the most important factor still in the incentive to work.

a1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1976) II. 638 The trade unionists want to see us spending much less on social services so that there'll be more for wage packets.

1923 H. W. B. Joseph Labour Theory of Value in Karl Marx vii. 154 In the absence of definite agreements or enactments, we can produce no rule of universal application, to which wage-payments ought to conform.

1965 New Statesman 9 Apr. 576/3 The principles (but not the practice) of a wages policy.

1968 Manch. Guardian Weekly 14 Mar. 13 It has become fashionable to say that the British..manage to keep a wage-push inflation in times of crippling deflation.

1979 Dædalus Spring 53 Other things being equal, the greater the wage push, the tougher and more ‘lesson-teaching’ a policy is necessary to control inflation.

1898 Edinb. Rev. Apr. 278 Wage-rates are..the chief cause of trade disputes.

1958 Listener 4 Dec. 930/2 Don't think it's a matter of wage restraint only.

1977 M. Edelman Polit. Lang. viii. 153 Employers perceive wage restraint by workers as in the public interest.

1930 W. K. Hancock Australia ix. 187 It is apparent that wage-rigidity is less important in its social consequences than in its economic and psychological consequences.

1983 Economist 18 June 21/3 Some belief in wage-rigidity is deeply rooted in his work.

1886 W. H. Mallock Old Order Changes II. 29 The hands, as you call them, the poor jaded underfed wage-slaves.

1886 D. Donohue Let. 21 Oct. in N.Y. Times 24 Oct. 1/5 It is therefore but natural that we should vote for a man who proposes to use his best endeavors to bring about legislation by which wage slavery and land monopoly shall be abolished.

1903 Dublin Rev. Oct. 243 The attitude taken up by the Pope..in regard to wage-slavery.

1962 Observer 25 Feb. 23/3 They were working themselves at the wage-snatch business, with a bit of smash-and-grab on the side.

1964 J. Creasey Look Three Ways xx. 183 There's a hold-up... Wages snatch!

1977 L. Meynell Hooky gets Wooden Spoon xii. 149 She wasn't doing anything for the police in the wages snatch.

1948 Ann. Reg. 1947 20 A wage spiral was only prevented by distortion which would soon become intolerable.

1955 Ann. Reg. 1954 1 The commission..undertook to make a thorough examination..of the whole wage structure.

1898 Kansas City (Missouri) Star 18 Dec. 2/1 The ultimate outcome of the labor movement..will be the destruction of the wage system.

1929 D. H. Lawrence Pansies 75 Ultimately, we are all busy buying and selling one another. It began with Judas and goes on in the wage-system.

1870 Ld. Tennyson Coming of Arthur 417 Dark sayings..echo'd by old folk beside their fires, For comfort after their wage-work is done.

1888 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 17 July 2/3 Free trade's bitterest foe is the American wageworker.

1904 Boston Transcript 11 June 18 The speaker went further than was necessary in his effort to do justice to the wage-worker.

1963 Punch 20 Mar. 398/2 There must..be a wage-related contributory insurance system.

1898 G. B. Shaw Perfect Wagnerite 29 The starving wage-working class.

1968 Economist 23 Mar. 16/3 Any wage bargainer worth his salt should be able to dress up a claim to fit the loose criteria ‘justifying’ a 3½ per cent increase.

1928 Britain's Industr. Future (Liberal Industr. Inq.) iii. xvii. 209 In the boot and shoe trade..it has been thought desirable to keep wage-bargaining apart from the general discussions carried on by the Joint Industrial Council.

1983 Times 24 June 7/6 The fear that mass hunger striking will become a common tool of wage bargaining.

1910 Encycl. Brit. V. 879/1 This argument, which combined statutory wage control and statutory poor relief, seems to have been firmly embedded in the English legislative mind..till after 1600.

1978 Economist 18 Feb. 75/1 The [Argentine] government..has relaxed wage controls on private industry.

1985 Financial Times 4 Mar. 6/4 The most apparent difference is in their approach to inflation and wage control.

1885 Manch. Examiner 20 Feb. 5/1 Trade will always fluctuate, wage-earners will always suffer as a consequence.

1865 Sat. Rev. 12 Aug. 203 The wages-earning and beef-eating qualities of the Briton.

1884 Times (Weekly ed.) 10 Oct. 7/2 To turn their young children into wage-earning machines.

1902 Edinb. Rev. Oct. 402 Education..may do much to..raise the power of wage-earning.

1928 Britain's Industr. Future (Liberal Industr. Inq.) ii. xvi. 181 The practical considerations which ought to govern the process of wage-fixing.

1868 J. Ruskin Time & Tide (1872) 7 This principle of regular wage-paying.

1902 J. P. Struthers Life & Lett. (1918) 279 They were the chief wage-winners in the house.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Wages takyng, stipendiatus.

1946 Sun (Baltimore) 1 Mar. 1/3 The situation, therefore, presents possibilities of a critical test of the administration's new wage price line.

1958 Engineering 11 Apr. 460/1 There appeared to be no doubt whatever in Lord Cohen's mind that this painful process of breaking the wage-price spiral had to be adopted.

1977 M. Edelman Polit. Lang. viii. 147 A wage-price freeze from which major industries quickly won exceptions.

1950 D. W. Brogan Era of F. D. Roosevelt v. 100 Controversy arose over wage differentials between North and South.

1957 Observer 6 Oct. 10/2 The pension scheme, by relating superannuation to wages, strengthens the value of wage differentials and hence the incentive to acquire greater skills.

1977 China Now Apr.–May 7/1 They were cutting down wage differentials.

1963 Times 22 Jan. 4/6 This is a comparatively rare phenomenon, ‘wage drift’ in reverse, and reflects increased short time and lower earnings from bonuses, overtime and so on.

a1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1976) II. 703 As for the 3¹/ ₂ per cent ceiling, he told me it was quite unrealistic since wage drift by itself probably comes to 3¹/ ₂ per cent.

1942 Business Week 11 Apr. 88/1 In wartime there is much to be said for a general price, wage, and profit freeze.

1967 Spectator 1 Sept. 238/2 The wage freeze has been imposed without a murmur of national strike action.

1980 C. Moorehead Fortune's Hostages v. 104 The President [of Uruguay]..tried to introduce economic restraint by wage freezes.

1976 Washington Post 19 Apr. a 23/4 By last spring, some unions were putting in for wage hikes up to 60 per cent.

1947 Amer. Econ. Rev. 37 387 The 1946 wage round did not cause the price increases of the period.

1977 Economist 22 Oct. 89/1 There is still no sign (two months into the current wage round) that wages are about to go through the roof.

1991 Economist 22 June 89/1 The Bank of Japan was supposedly going to cut its discount rate as soon as the spring wage round had been concluded with safely non-inflationary rises.

1960 F. Lynde Quickening 310 His father was deep in the new wage scale submitted by the miners' union.

1979 Gloss. Terms Work Study (B.S.I.) 27 Wage scale determination, the construction of a scale of wages reflecting the relative values of jobs.

1945 Wages Councils Act (8 & 9 Geo. VI. c. 17) 116 An Act to provide for the establishment of wages councils.

1971 Observer 7 Nov. 16/6 Many trade unionists argue that the very existence of wages councils discourages poorer workers from joining trade unions.

1984 Listener 1 Nov. 11/3 The Wages Councils, providing legal minimum wages and conditions for 2·7 million of Britain's lowest-paid workers..are threatened.

1652 R. Brome Joviall Crew iv. i. sig. I3^v That she should sleight me, and run away with a wages-fellow, that is but a petty Cleark and a Serving-man.

1848 J. S. Mill Princ. Polit. Econ. I. ii. xi. §1. 402 There is unfortunately no mode of expressing by one familiar term, the aggregate of what may be called the wages-fund of a country.

1863 H. Fawcett Man. Polit. Econ. ii. viii. 241 The remark has frequently been made that the capital of the country provides its wage-fund. This wage-fund is distributed amongst the whole wage-receiving population, and, therefore, the average of each individual's wages cannot increase unless either the number of those who receive wages is diminished, or the wage-fund, which, in other words, may be described as the capital of the country, is increased.

1903 Daily Chron. 9 July 4/4 The cotton spinners..had to diminish their output and the wage-sheet.

1906 Westm. Gaz. 14 Nov. 10/1 Mr. Farrell quoted figures from his wages-sheet to prove that ability and competence..have to be paid for.

1888 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms xxvi They took up a claim... Then they got a wages-man to help them, and all four used to work like niggers.

1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right I. iii. 54 One would think I was a wages-man, the way you three coves bosses it over me.

1940 Economist 28 Dec. 799/1 The attempt to carry out a wage stop similar to the price stop had to be abandoned.

1954 E. H. Carr Interregnum 73 This quasi-official wages-stop remained in force throughout 1923.

1971 Daily Tel. 16 June 3/3 The wage stop is the system by which men are prevented from drawing more in State benefits than they had earned while in work—even if this means they get less than the commission's official poverty level.

1963 Guardian 25 Feb. 11/7 If a man is wage-stopped, he will not get anything at all from the increases.

1963 Times 18 Feb. 11/6 To suggest..that all the 15,000 wage-stopped families were outsize would, on the board's own figures, be plainly absurd.

1936 J. M. Keynes Gen. Theory Employment iv. 41 The money-wage of a labour-unit we shall call the wage-unit.

1976 F. Zweig New Acquisitive Society ii. iv. 106 Economic planning which is based primarily on a ‘wage unit’ determined by the planning authorities as the pivot of economic planning.