peanut

To pay (someone) a very paltry or miniscule amount; to pay the absolute minimum amount necessary. I had a few jobs during college getting paid peanuts, but it was the only work I could find that fit in with my studies. You're never going to be able to hire an effective manager if you're only willing to pay peanuts.

To work for very little money. Geez, I need a raise—I'm sick of still working for peanuts after three years!

Fig. for nearly nothing; for very little money. (Also used without for.) Bob doesn't get paid much. He works for chicken feed. You can buy an old car for chicken feed. I won't do that kind of work for peanuts!

something that you say which means that only stupid people will work for you if you do not pay very much 'This company is full of incompetents!' 'Well, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.'

A rowdy audience. The original peanut galleries were the cheapest, which is to say, the highest, seats in a theater or vaudeville house. Their patrons heckled and often threw peanuts (the least expensive items sold at the snack bar) at performers who didn't measure up to the audience's expectations. The most popular children's television show of the mid-20th century was Howdy Doody (Howdy, Mr. Bluster, Flub-A-Dub and other marionettes interacted with their human friends led by Buffalo Bob Smith and Clarabelle the Clown). The studio audience were children who sat in the Peanut Gallery and were encouraged to laugh, cheer, or boo at the show's riotous happenings.