Coal miners come to mind.

How about pre-1963 housewives in the U.S.? Not that they started getting paid after that, but at least the disparity began to be noticed.

I’m also figuring that there must be many countries that have never had a minimum wage at all.

I found this article about some countries that don’t have minimum wages.

Also, this wikipedia has a list of minimum wage by country.

@JLeslie Vatican city is not mentioned. What would their minimum wage be?

^^ I simply typed in “does vatican city have a minimum wage” and got this site, among others:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/20/the-u-s-differs-from-most-other-countries-in-how-it-sets-its-minimum-wage/

Vatican City is mentioned toward the bottom.

Not getting paid, happens.

Certainly there have been, and are, places with no “minimum wage” laws, per se.

And, people do work for no wage, pretty often in some circumstances, either as volunteers, company owners, or “on spec(ulation)” projects, for “a share of the profits”, or for tips, or for in-kind or service compensation, or to satisfy judgements, etc.

I’ve been offered “glory points. Lots of glory points,” and I’ve done work as one of several “tests” for approval for possible future at-will employment, for no direct compensation. (Game industry work, where I was interested enough in the projects to want to do that enough.)

It’s not slavery unless one must do the work, can’t resign, you’re considered the property of someone else, etc.

@smudges Your link says that The Vatican doesn’t have a minimum wage and uses collective bargaining. Also they they don’t have any more info on them.

You can’t get lower than $0, Red – even in Canada ; )

@JLoon I thought that doctors in residence have to pay tuition while working for free in a clinic or hospital.

In contrast the trades usually pay you while you learn.

@RedDeerGuy1 – No, no, nooooo.

That’s not how it works in the US of Allmightydollars. Resident physicians are paid – and pretty well :

https://www.ama-assn.org/medical-students/specialty-profiles/6-things-medical-students-should-know-about-physician#:~:text=The%20average%20first%2Dyear%20resident,training%20year%20rather%20than%20specialty.

@JLoon Thanks. I should really stop getting career advice from the television.

Yes.

Stop watching TV and listen to Fluther. You’ll be rich and famous.

Just like me ;p

@JLoon
I cancelled my cable 6 months ago.
I still have internet on my phone and AppleTv, in which I watch Bloomberg business news and technology at 3pm mountain standard time.
I get two local television channels for free with my antenna.
I get AM and FM stations on my radio.

@RedDeerGuy1 Right, that’s what I could find. So apparently they don’t have a minimum wage – that’s what you asked @JLeslie in the post above my answer.