What 人に使われていくら means here

Question

Speaker A: こんなバカげた仕事はさっさと終わらせて一服したいね。
Speaker B: まあ、おまえらは人に使われていくらだからなぁ。
Speaker B: 少し苦しいかもしれないけど、しっかり頼むぜ。

I don't understand the second sentence, いくら is "how much?" and だから means "it is because..."

Can't make sense of it...

Answer 1

～ていくら (or more commonly ～てなんぼ, where なんぼ is a kansai-ben version of いくら) is a little slangy set phrase that means "to be worthy only if ～", "to be meaningless without ～" or "to be all about ～ing". It works like a no-adjective as a whole. This いくら/なんぼ is "how much (money)", so the original idea is that you get paid only after doing something. But this is an idiom and can be used outside business-related contexts, too. This だから is just "because" or "..., so, ...", and here it adds the nuance of "you know what" or "you get the point".

• 俺たちは人を騙していくらの商売だ。
  俺たちの商売は人を騙してなんぼだ。
  Our job is all about deceiving someone.
• ここに来たならあのステーキを食べてナンボでしょ！
  It's meaningless to come here if you don't eat that steak!
• これは死んでなんぼのゲームだよ。
  This is a kind of game where you learn by dying many times.
• おまえらは人に使われていくらだからなぁ。
  It's your job to let others push you around, you know.
  You guys are only worthy by serving someone else.