underpaid

English

Etymology

From under- +‎ paid.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪd

Adjective

underpaid (comparative more underpaid, superlative most underpaid)

1. Getting too little financial compensation for one's work.

   I am underpaid and overworked.

   • 1890, Jacob A[ugust] Riis, “The Bohemians—Tenement-house Cigarmaking”, in How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 137:

     The accusation that he lives like the “rat” he is, cutting down wages by his underpaid labor, he throws back in the teeth of the trades unions with the counter-charge that they are the first cause of his attitude to the labor question.

   • 2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, page 38:

     Terry Gourvish, the lead author if the authorised commercial history of BR, described the new BTC structure thus: "The conclusion must be that the combination of a few undynamic railwaymen, underpaid full-timers (Commission and General Staff) and poorly-paid part-time businessmen was not a very potent managerial cocktail."

Antonyms

• overpaid

Translations

getting too little financial compensation for one's work

• Dutch: onderbetaald (nl)
• Esperanto: nesufiĉe pagata
• Finnish: alipalkattu, alipalkkainen
• French: sous-payé (fr), mal payé
• German: schlechtbezahlt (de)
• Greek: κακοπληρωμένος (el) (kakopliroménos)
• Italian: sottopagato (it)
• Manx: fo-eckit
• Polish: niedopłacony
• Swedish: underbetald (sv)