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Reader question: Please explain this sentence: “The minimum wage I make is not a living wage.” Living wage? My comments: The speaker makes the minimum wage, the lowest amount of money an employer is allowed to pay a worker according to the law. Local law, that is, as the minimum pay is different from place to place. Anyways, the minimum wage is so low that the speaker says he’s not able to make a living on it. Apparently, the speaker has to work another job in order to make ends meet, i.e. to pay all the bills. That’s what he or she means by saying “The minimum wage I make is not a living age.” Though often confused with each other, living wage really is not the same as a minimum wage. While the minimum wage is the lowest pay allowable by law, the living wage is a loosely defined common-sense term describing a wage that enables comfortable living. Basic living, I should’ve said. Or reasonably comfortable, enabling families to get fed and clothed, to have health insurance, for instance and perhaps to have a little extra expense for leisure, such as visiting the cinema once in a while, once in a great while if needs be. In other words, a living wage is perhaps a wage that assures a more or less adequate lifestyle according to common decency. Decency is perhaps too lofty a goal to reach for, but a living wage should be something close, close enough at least to make that goal within, um, striking distance. | 
