underpayment
Americannoun
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the act of paying less than is required or owed.
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a payment which is lower than the money required or owed.
Other Word Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That lack of care reportedly also extended to human employees, as D’Amaro’s division was forced by the federal Department of Labor to pay back wages to park workers who protested underpayment.
From Slate • Feb. 4, 2026
If your employer doesn’t withhold enough, you might owe taxes with your tax return and an underpayment penalty.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 25, 2026
Licences were revoked for breaking rules including failing to provide promised work and underpayment, and helping people to circumvent immigration rules.
From BBC • Sep. 11, 2025
To avoid going into collection, Phillips said, you might offer to pay a compromise amount — for example, if you can show that you weren’t responsible for the underpayment.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2024
His collection rate was about 95 percent; he attributed the underpayment to oversight, not fraud.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
