Wages: penny a year (3)
I believe the answer is:
pay
'wages' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'penny a year' is the wordplay.
'penny' becomes 'p' (**).
'year' becomes 'y'.
'p'+'a'+'y'='PAY'
(Other definitions for pay that I've seen before include "Salary, wages" , "Screw" , "Profit" , "stop possible leaks on board" , "Earnings" .)