Requirements of daughter employed in topless joints (5)
I believe the answer is:
needs
'requirements' is the definition.
('need' can be a synonym of 'requirement')
'daughter employed in topless joints' is the wordplay.
'daughter' becomes 'd'.
'employed in' is an insertion indicator.
'topless' means to remove the first letter.
'joints' becomes 'knees' (knee is a kind of joint).
'knees' with its initial letter removed is 'nees'.
'd' going into 'nees' is 'NEEDS'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for needs that I've seen before include "Misses" , "necessity once" , "Requirements" , "Requires, is in want of" , "What we require" .)