Meaning & use
pay dues
Last updated
Meanings
phraseidiominformal
To go through a period of hard work or low status before you earn a better position.
Grammar: The possessive matches the subject: pay your dues, pay his dues.
Patterns
- pay your dues
- pay your dues as something
She paid her dues as a junior reporter before she got her own column.
You have to pay your dues in this business before anyone listens to you.
He paid his dues playing in empty bars for ten years.
phrasefixed phrase
To hand over regular fees to belong to a union, club or association.
Grammar: Literal use: members pay dues monthly or yearly.
Patterns
- pay dues to something
Members pay dues to the union every month.
The club asks everyone to pay dues by the end of January.
I forgot to pay dues, so my membership lapsed.
Word forms
| third person singular | pays dues |
|---|---|
| past tense | paid dues |
| -ing form | paying dues |
Common combinations
- pay your dues
- Everyone in the kitchen has to pay their dues at the start.
- pay union dues
- Workers pay union dues from each paycheck.
- already paid my dues
- I've already paid my dues, so I deserve a chance.
- pay dues for years
- Actors often pay dues for years before a break.
- pay membership dues
- Please pay membership dues online.
Synonyms and how they differ
- earn your stripes
- Earn your stripes stresses proving your ability and is a bit more military in tone, while pay your dues stresses enduring hardship first.
- put in the time
- Put in the time is plainer and focuses on duration alone, with less suggestion of earning respect.
- work your way up
- Work your way up describes climbing the ladder step by step, whereas pay your dues stresses the unglamorous start.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: pay dues or pay due?
pay dues vs pay due
Due on its own means expected or owed; the idiom needs the plural dues.
Practice
The young chef peeled vegetables for two years because she knew she had to ______ before getting her own station.
Choose one answer.
Paying your dues means putting in hard, low-status work first. Paying her respects is for honoring a person, and pay her way means covering her own costs.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pay dues”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.