Does 仕事があれば bear a notion of "if you pay me"?


I sometimes hear a phrase 仕事があれば used in situations where a freelancer or an
artist says something that in English would be "if you pay me I will do it"
(まぁ、仕事があれば〜), "if you pay me I will go" (仕事があれば、どこへでも行く).

However I can't find any dictionary or usage example in which 仕事 would be
likened to the actual _compensation_ for work. _Work_ , _task_ , _duty_ ,
_assignment_ - all refer to an obligation of a person doing the actual work,
but not the person who orders the work to be done. These two are closely
related, but does 仕事 always mean a work done for a compensation?

Am I interpreting the phrase 仕事があれば correctly?

The reason I am asking is that usually I heard it is spoken with a grin or it
caused a few chuckles around. Something unusual for a dry, literal
interpretation.




仕事 just means job or task, _paid or unpaid_. Whether it means a _paid_ job
depends on the context.

If a freelancer says "これは遊びではなくて仕事だ", this 仕事 definitely refers to a paid job.
If the same person says "家に帰って猫に餌をやる仕事がある", this 仕事 is of course unpaid.

> The reason I am asking is that usually I heard it is spoken with a grin or
> it caused a few chuckles around. Something unusual for a dry, literal
> interpretation.

That's just because 仕事 obviously refers to a paid job in that context, and "if
you pay me" is implied. A job officially offered to a freelancer or a
professional artist is always with a compensation... well, at least in Japan.

