Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dues n.

1. usu. in pl., money.

[Aus]Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 238: dues: This term is sometimes used to express money, where any certain sum or payment is spoken of; a man asking for money due to him for any service done, or a blowen requiring her previous compliment from a family-man, would say, Come, tip us the dues. So a thief, requiring his share of booty from his palls, will desire them to bring the dues to light.
[UK](con. 1703) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1840) 26: Will he come down with the dues?
[US]A. Anderson ‘Dance of the Infidels’ in Lover Man 157: Nothing but dues, you dig? Kats won’t let a man live.
[US]N. Heard House of Slammers 57: Ain’t got no dues for the rent.

2. a term used in phrs. meaning a business, concern or affair; see lagging dues under lagging n.; narking dues under nark v.1 ; quodding dues are concerned under quod v.; slanging dues concerned under slang v.1 ; weeding dues n.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

pay one’s dues (v.) (also pay the dues)

(orig. US) to undergo usu. undesirable experiences before one attains a desirable goal.

[US]Davis & Wolsey Call House Madam 292: She was mixed up later in one of the rottenest shooting messes ever staged in Hollywood, but she got away with her end of it and never paid her dues.
[US]Babs Gonzales ‘Manhattan Fable’ 🎵 He pulled Freddy’s coat about his big eyes for the chick and how he’d pay any kind of dues to cop some long greens.
[US]Esquire Feb. 63: Some of the commercial jazz guys think they’re playing real jazz, but they aren’t making it because they haven’t paid their dues.
[US]L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 40: I really searched it out, why we pay the dues.
[US]E. Tidyman Shaft 58: They paid the fucking dues just to stay alive.
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 249: pay dues 1. Suffer. 2. Go through hard times.
[US]E. Little Another Day in Paradise 105: That little girl has paid some serious dues.
[UK]N. Macdonald Graffiti Subculture xii: Pay one’s dues: To show one’s dedication through a full and active illegal career.