Start of poorly-paid job for one of the plebs (5)
I believe the answer is:
prole
'one of the plebs' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.
'start of poorly-paid job' is the wordplay.
'start of' says to take the initial letters.
'paid job' becomes 'role' (a job is a role or position. I am not sure about the 'paid' bit.).
The initial letter of 'poorly' is 'p'.
'p'+'role'='PROLE'
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for prole that I've seen before include "Marxism's member of the working class (abbr)" , "Peasant" , "Member of the poorest class (colloq.)" , "The old keep moving" , "poor person" .)