Has there ever been a minimum wage lower than $0.00 a hour?

A person needs income to live on. Slaves had to be given free room and board. They had to either have been given food or provided with land to grow their own.

Volunteers get $0.00. Could it be that some volunteers pay to be given a more responsible position? Some of them may donate cash or supplies. Would that make them earn a negative income?

Internships are sometimes like that – where you pay for the opportunity to learn some skill.

And there is slavery, of course. And imprisonment.

Coal miners used to. They would work for horrible wages, live on a remote site that required them to get their staples from the company store that charged them high prices and offered credit at usurious rates.
Listen to the words of 16 tons “I owe my soul to the company store.”

Exactly what @LuckyGuy. When all was said and done, the coal miners often owed the company store more than what they were paid.

There are some sales jobs and/or scams or pyramid schemes where people work on the hope/promise of sales commissions or other rewards, and that include needing to “buy in” for training, membership, materials, sales goods, etc. There are laws against many but not all such arrangements.

Some jobs don’t offer a base pay. The person has to survive on commission. If they get no commission that month they don’t get paid. And they may still be out for gas and meals and whatever.

Assemble _________ at home earn $$. You buy the supplies, then get docked if you don’t mail the whatever back on time fully assembled. They make the deadline completely impossible to make unless you have friends to come over and help. Now you owe them big time.