This employee makes pittance at first (4)
I believe the answer is:
temp
'this employee makes pittance at first' is the definition.
'temp' can be an answer for 'employee' (I've seen this before). I'm not certain of the rest of the definition.
'this employee makes pittance at first' is the wordplay.
'at first' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'this employee makes pittance' is 'TEMP'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for temp that I've seen before include "relief" , "Short-term office worker" , "Non-permanent worker" , "Short-term worker, in short" , "N on-permanent worker" .)