Wage-Earner

In the bankrupt act, an individual working for wages at a rate not exceeding $1,500 per year. In re Wakefield, 182 Fed. 247. The act does not fix the time when the status of the individual as a wage-earner is to be determined. In many of the cases it has been determined by the vocation of the individual when the act of bankruptcy was committed; In re Crenshaw, 156 Fed. 638; Flickinger v. Bank, 145 Fed. 162, 76 C. C. A. 132. It has been held that the status of the alleged bankrupt is to be determined as of the period when he contracted the debt to be proved, and acquired the property to be administered; and if he was at that time engaged in mercantile pursuits, he cannot defeat the operation of the law by thereafter engaging in an exempt occupation; In re Burgin, 173 Fed. 726; Tiffany v. Milk Co., 141 Fed. 444; Bollinger v. Bank, 177 Fed. 609, 101 C. C. A. 235. One engaged in manufacturing and trading does not become a wage-earner and exempt from adjudication as a bankrupt because, while working as a manufacturer and trader, he also earns wages by working for another in a different occupation; and if debts are contracted while he is engaged as a manufacturer and trader, he is not exempt from involuntary bankruptcy because he subsequently becomes a wage-earner; In re Naroma Chocolate Co., 178 Fed. 383.

One who earns his living by labor of a menial or mechanical kind or performed in a subordinate capacity, such as domestic servants, mechanics, farm bands, clerks, orters, and messengers. In the United States ankruptcy act of 1898, an individual who works for wages, salary, or hire, at a compensation not exceeding $1,500 per year. See In re Pilger (D. C.) 118 Fed. 206; In re Gurewitz, 121 Fed. 982, 58 a C. A. 320.

Defined under Wages in Black's Law Dictionary.