The phrase "a paltry increase" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a minimal or insignificant rise in something, often in a financial or quantitative context.
Example: "Despite the rising costs, the company reported a paltry increase in profits this quarter."
Alternatives: "a meager increase" or "a trivial increase."
"This is a paltry increase," said Representative John J. LaFalce of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.
Fortunately for the industry, the new regulations -- some penalties for bad driving, a paltry increase in insurance -- won't make much difference.
And while that is a paltry increase by suburban standards, where the bigger the rise the greater the bragging rights, many taxpayers see it as the beginning of a significant shift in the role of the property tax in New York City.
That smorgasbord of pork leaves NASA with a paltry increase of $8 million to spend as it wishes, and little flexibility to cope with a $75 million cut in funding for the international space station.
They gave huge salary increases to administrators which was unwarranted and then angered the teachers by a paltry increase.
He can Butreached at 917-267-2335.
Last year, 297 million tons of meat went on the market, a paltry 0.8% increase compared with the 2.6% increase in 2010.
The World Trade Organization's director-general, Pascal Lamy, said "the final trade numbers for 2012 are quite sobering," with developed economies notching a paltry 1 percent increase in their exports last year while shipments from developing economies grew 3.3 percent.
PLAYBOY ENTERPRISES (15, PLA), for 2005′s first nine months, scored a paltry revenue increase of 3% to $247 million and reported a net loss of $5.3 million amid debt refinancing charges.
According to the National Women's Law Center, the majority of America's full-time working women are still being paid 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes -- a paltry 18-cent18-centse over what women were making in 1970, when I first joined the fight for equal pay.
These initiatives would produce more impressive results than the paltry increase in standardized test scores attributed to Mr. Giuliani's voucher program.
