Despite the significant role of payment in teachers’ professional work, little is known about its intersections with teachers’ professional competencies, especially in online contexts. The present study explored the role of low and delayed payment in 15 Iranian English language teachers’ emotions and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic by collecting data from narrative frames, semi-structured interviews, and metaphors. Data analyses revealed appalling findings about how low and delayed payment shaped our focal teachers’ emotions and wellbeing in the areas of: The role of payment in (1) teachers’ physical and mental health, (2) teachers’ sense of burnout, and (3) workplace instability. Our findings show how payment dwells in the interface between teachers’ personal and professional lives, and defies, defines, and deforms the push and pull of emotions and wellbeing relative to their online instruction. Based on the findings, we provide implications for institutional policymakers and future researchers to move the issue of payment from the periphery to the core so that teachers become less influenced by the negative consequences of low payment.