I did about .000003% of work total thus far; though I find that it's still a balance of some amount of currency. Why is my balance still at 0?
Bitminter
Pools do not pay out unless you meet a certain balance. Usually you can set this balance in your account settings, but only within the pool's specified limits.
ex. (BTC0.01 - BTC10)
I really doubt you've made BTC.01 yet...
Also, in the pool, balances could probably be rounded.
If the pool makes BTC1 over a period of time, and you do .000003% of the work, you'd have BTC.000003. In USD, that's $0.0018.
So for every $650 the pool is making, you will make about 2/10ths of a penny at that rate.