1.   But the meagre wages make this physically demanding work barely worthwhile.

2.   The protesting workers had been complaining that their already meagre wages were being paid less and less frequently.

3.   Many Russians have more than one job to supplement meagre wages.

4.   Many of these women also work in factories, offices and shops in cities, or on farms, where the poor do backbreaking labour for meagre wages.