pittance

[ pit-ns ]

/ ˈpɪt ns /

a small amount or share.

a small allowance or sum, as of money for living expenses.

a scanty income or remuneration.

Origin of pittance

1175–1225; Middle English pitaunce < Old French pitance, variant of pietance piety, pity, allowance of food (in a monastery). See pity, -ance

In other words, overtime amounts to only pittance of the overall pay — about $6.50 a week on top of wages of $1,000 a week.

The Administration's Thin Complaints About the Sequester |Megan McArdle |March 6, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
In budgetary terms, it was a pittance: 0.1 percent of the CDC's $2.2 billion allocation.

The Reason for Our Woeful Lack of Gun Statistics |David Frum |December 18, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
Despite powering the country's economic growth, they receive a pittance of the proceeds.

Ghosts in the Machine: The Story of China’s Rural Migrants and Their Uncertain Future |Ross Perlin |December 10, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
Fire officers appreciate that the amount of burning witnessed in recent years is a pittance compared to what is required.

Colorado Blazes Remind Us That National Policy on Fire Needs a Fix |Stephen J. Pyne |June 29, 2012 |DAILY BEAST

These immigrants are often employed illegally (but also legally) for a pittance, working in factories or as fruit pickers.

Missing Women Give Clues to Dead Body Found on Queen’s Estate |Charlotte Edwardes |January 4, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
It is well known that these are eaten raw; but after so many labors, so various and so rude, the pittance was meagre.

Sea Stories |Various
We did our best to help them out of our own pittance; but to all of us it was like falling from affluence to penury.

Hurricane Hurry |W.H.G. Kingston
Neglecting all other affairs, he was content to live on a pittance, which he was enabled to do by a frugal and helpful wife.

The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 6 |Various
Men lavished their thought, and men lavished their sweat for a pittance, upon this building.

The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 7 (of 12) |Robert G. Ingersoll
I made shirts for a pittance and daily refused, to me, fortunes for dishonor.

Stories of the Railroad |John A. Hill

pittance

/ (ˈpɪtəns) /

a small amount or portion, esp a meagre allowance of money

C16: from Old French pietance ration, ultimately from Latin pietās duty