wage earner

a person who works for wages, especially a laborer.

Origin of wage earner

First recorded in 1880–85

The wage-earner and the salaried man are rarely quite without material wealth.

The Principles of Economics |Frank A. Fetter
One was of a woman whose husband had been a wage-earner, and, with six or eight children, had been able to save nothing.

The Living Present |Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
Were it not for that extraneous circumstance, the showing for the wage-earner's advance would be even greater.

The Unpopular Review Vol. I |Various
It is impossible to forget the sense of dignity which marks the hour when one becomes a wage-earner.

McClure's Magazine December, 1895 |Edited by Ida M. Tarbell

In a more primitive industry each man is wage-earner, capitalist, and enterpriser combined in one.

The Principles of Economics |Frank A. Fetter

wage earner

a person who works for wages, esp as distinguished from one paid a salary

the person who earns money to support a household by working