Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) an unreliable debtor.

1971

R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 243: ‘She and her old man are both bad pay, but mebbe we can get fifty cents outa her’.

(Irish) to make a fuss.

1886		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 July 17/4: [O]n one or two occasions it happened that ‘the bug gave out the pay,’ a circumstance which led to trouble.
1965		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Confessions 18: Some half-idiot [...] who was giving out the pay about the hardships endured by the British.
1966		P. Boyle At Night All Cats are Grey 156: Mrs Nesbitt, a bitter-tongued old wasp, gave out the pay as we stood at the gate watching.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 76: She’s something else. And doesn’t she give out good pay.
1997		Share Slanguage.

(Aus./N.Z. prison) to reprimand, to criticize harshly.

1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 252: pay (n) e.g. Give a –. Berate, criticise loudly.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 193: pay: to tell someone off abuse him; for example, to ‘give him a pay’.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 241: He grabbed referee Robin Whitfield in a headlock and gave him the biggest pay Vautin had ever heard in his life.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 263: ‘I’ll cop a serve from anyone if I deserve it but I considered his payouts a personal attack’.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] ‘That pay you gave Burne cracked me up’.