Woe is me giving back part of my salary (4)
I believe the answer is:
alas
'woe is me' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'back part of my salary' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'part' could be 'la' (la is a kind of part) and 'la' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'as' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'giving' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alas that I've seen before include "Proper, respectable" , "Regretfully!" , "Exclamation of grief" , "Cry of grief" , "Sadly, unfortunately" .)