11.   The thieves arrive with guns, knockout drugs, cars with false license plates and armies of desert nomads prepared to dig for meager daily wages.

12.   Why would the poor lavish their meager wages on powder and paint?

13.   Graduates expect to see their earning potential rise from the meager hourly wages paid by surf shops to the comfortable salaries and benefits of the business world.

14.   Most Russians are growing steadily poorer, trapped between rising consumer prices and meager wages, a newspaper said on Friday.

15.   Other soldiers were notorious for supplementing meager wages by using their guns to rob civilians.

16.   She dresses elegantly and squeaks by on a meager wage.

17.   So far, most are paid only with a daily plate of onion and potato, although some officers have had meager wages paid by local businessmen.

18.   So far, most are paid only with a daily plate of onions and potatoes, although some officers have had meager wages paid by local businessmen.

19.   However, the meager wages of Russian police could barely be compared to their Western counterparts or even the Soviet times, Gryzlov complained.

20.   Jayakarta quoted workers as saying that the company had postponed the payment of meager monthly wages for days on the grounds that its computer system was inoperable.