Office worker who pays out much more than he ever earns (5,5)

'out much more than he ever earns' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'office worker who pays' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'worker' could be 'clerk' (clerk is a kind of worker) and 'clerk' is found within the answer.
'pays' could be 'wages' ('wage' can be a synonym of 'pay') and 'wages' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?