Paid for cold dish, oddly ruined inside (8)
I believe the answer is:
salaried
'paid' is the definition.
('salaried' can be similar in meaning to 'paid')
'cold dish oddly ruined inside' is the wordplay.
'cold dish' becomes 'salad' (I've seen this before).
'oddly' indicates alternate letters.
'inside' indicates putting letters inside.
The alternating letters of 'ruined' are 'rie'.
'salad' going around 'rie' is 'SALARIED'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for salaried that I've seen before include "Paid monthly for work" , "Paid regularly" , "Earning a living" .)