He pays to study the total figure with hesitation (8)
I believe the answer is:
consumer
'figure with hesitation' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'he pays to study the total' is the wordplay.
'he pays' becomes 'er' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'study' becomes 'con' (I've seen this before).
'the total' becomes 'sum' ('sum' can be a synonym of 'total').
'con'+'sum'='consum'
'er' after 'consum' is 'CONSUMER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for consumer that I've seen before include "Client" , "One buying goods" , "one may be looking for the product" , "Person who buys goods or service" , "Buyer of goods" .)