They may be raised if he's taking in work (5)
I believe the answer is:
hopes
'they' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'raised if he's taking in work' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'work' could be 'op' (abbreviation for opus) and 'op' is located in the answer.
'he's' could be 'hes' and 'hes' is located in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'may be' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hopes that I've seen before include "Believes that good things may happen" , "Aspirations, wishes" , "Desires and expects" , "Aspires" , "Expectations" .)