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
Noun Inflected 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.
See Examples For:
The tendency to justify women’s chronic underpayment rather than address it reproduces inefficiencies that come at a high cost to America’s families, organizations and broader economy.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
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
Gold said just over 94,000 couriers were impacted with an average underpayment of $19.48.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
Ms Casimiro is currently taking the company to an employment tribunal over claims of unfair dismissal, discrimination and underpayment of wages, and now campaigns for better protection for seasonal farm workers.
From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2025
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
“It is unacceptable that wildfire survivors—people who have lost everything—were met with delays, underpayments, and roadblocks when they needed help the most.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
The full improper payments figure reported for 2025 came to $186 billion, but that included at least $10 billion in underpayments as well.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 29, 2026
All the employers named on DBT's list were fined up to double the total amount they owed to staff, some for underpayments dating as far back as 2013.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2025
According to the nonprofit Department of Angels, 70% of the roughly 2,000 insured Eaton and Palisades fire survivors who were surveyed said delays, denials and underpayments are “actively derailing recovery.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2025
The projected gross tax gap — made up of failed payments through nonfiling, underreporting and underpayments — doesn’t account for late payments or IRS enforcement.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 12, 2023
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.
