Once in a while it's good to ball park how much money a non-adventurer has access to. Remember in a lot of cases, people are partially or even fully in goods rather than coins. A lot of lowly laborers are not given any money at all and their "pay" represents the general baseline for their room and board provided by their employer.
Almost anyone on a noble's payroll receives room and board as part of their pay.
Typical Daily Pay
Unskilled Labor 2 cp
Apprentice level professional skill ● 4 cp
Journeyman level professional skill ●● 1 sp
Master level professional skill ●●● 2 sp
Celebrated Master ●●●● 5 sp
Legendary Master ●●●●● 10 sp
Modifiers
Task is especially dangerous or degrading +25%-50%
Task requires literacy +25%
Work is sporadic or seasonal +25%
Task is rarely called for +50%
Ability requires a rare skill +100%
Worker juggles different skill sets, Add half the cost of each secondary skill
Worker maintains his own inventory/equipment +25%-50%
Task is illegal +100%
Task is highly illegal +200% (those caught are almost certain to die or lose a bodypart they don't want to lose)
Examples
Porters
A porter's job is to carry things from point A to point B.
A porter normally gets paid 2 copper pieces a day. A porter whose sole task is emptying chamber pots for an entire neighborhood is probably going to ask for 3 copper pieces a day because his work is degrading and it’s harder to find someone willing to do the work.
A porter who hauls rocks out of a mine whose supports are not certified safe by expert dwarf mine foreman would probably get 4 copper pieces a day because the work is fairly degrading and there is a slight, but ever-present threat of a mine collapse.
Farmhands
Farmhands normally gets paid 2 copper pieces a day. Farmhand working in an areas where they have to look over their shoulder for goblin raiders will probably ask for 3 copper pieces a day. If the farmhand is part of the militia (Melee ● as a secondary skill) and has a weapon on his belt while plowing fields, this counts as him having a secondary skill, so he probably gets 5 copper pieces a day.
Executioners
The town executioner has Medicine ●● with a specialty in "clean deaths" giving him an effective Medicine score of ●●● for the purpose of executions. He would normally make a base of 2 silver pieces per day for each day he must dispense with lethal justice, but this work is rarely called for (+50%) and is considered lowly and degrading (another +50%), so he probably makes 4 silver pieces per day. Hypothetically if there is a law that an executioner is punished severely for a sloppy execution such as not taking more than three swings with an axe to decapitate a high born condemned this job is now "dangerous" and thus the executioner would get 6 silver pieces for a single day's work. That is a a lot more than an average unskilled worker makes in several months.
Most places don’t have lots of executions and executioners are social pariahs, so the lowly porter probably doesn’t envy the executioner. Historically, most real world executioners had multiple jobs. The executioner probably has Medicine ●● for the purpose of saving lives rather than taking lives. In theory he could make 1 silver piece a day practicing medicine, but the executioner is no one’s first choice for a physician so he probably has to offer bargain prices and is lucky to make 5 copper pieces on a typical day. He makes good money compared to the average commoner, but he is still a social pariah. Despite his comparative wealth, the executioner's children are probably going to have to take up the executioner trade or become unskilled laborers because no reputable craftsman would apprentice them.
The best brewer in town
Let’s say the best brewer in town (Crafts ●●●) runs an inn and pub. That’s a base of 20 copper pieces per day. The nature of his job means he’s keeping inventory and some equipment and assuming some personal risk (+5 cp). He has to negotiate for supplies periodically (Commerce ●●, secondary ability +5 cp) and he needs to manage a small staff and pay his taxes and what not (Seneschal ● secondary ability, +2 cp). So he’s making about 32 copper pieces a day.
If hypothetically he became a better manager and raised his Seneschal by a dot he’d making 35 copper pieces a day. He probably wouldn’t literally be bringing in more money, but good seneschals reduce waste, so he’d be keeping more money.
If then the government had a regime change and a prohibition was instated, His task would become illegal. He'll have to move locations and set up a speak easy, his job is now illegal meaning he can charge a lot more for his product, so he could be pulling 7 silver piece a day. but he would have the proverbial Sword of Damocles hanging over his head that’s he’s never sure if the law will bust down his door (or maybe he uses some of extra money to bribe the local constabulary).
If the punishment for violating the prohibition was death or maiming (+200% for highly illegal, +50% dangerous), he would probably up his prices till he’s pulling in about 10 silver pieces a day assuming the authorities never catch him. If he wise he will set aside of that silver into an emergency bribe fund or hire some mercenaries to defend him.
Alchemists
A journeyman alchemists (base 1 silver piece) has to maintain expensive equipment (+50%), be literate (+25%), and possesses a rare skill (+100%). So an Alchemist is going to cost almost triple (+175%) what a blacksmith of the same ability typically charges for a day’s work on routine tasks. An alchemist working on explosives (which is obviously dangerous and non-routine, is going to make quadruple (+300%).
Wealthy Landowners
Most landed nobles don't normally get paid wages. They collect taxes and fees from those uses their land and/or they sell the products that can be harvested from the land. They also have to pay expenses, mainly feeding, housing, and clothing their staff, paying taxes (if they have a liege), and covering expenses and incidentals.
Yearly income for a noble represents what a noble can expect to have net of expenses on a typical year.
Knight 100-300 gp
Baron 300-800 gp
Count 500-1,200 gp
Duke 700-2,500 gp
King 1,500-10,000 gp
There is a lot of variation because there are a lot of variables. Two Dukes serving the same king
technically have identical rank and social standing, but the land they administer is almost certainly not identical. Also the dukes are probably not equally competant managers.
A loyal and skilled seneschal is worth his or her weight in gold to a feudal lord while a lazy, incompetent, or worse an embezzling seneschal can do more damage than an invading army.
There are also yearly fluctuations in crop yields, mine production quotas, etc.
Just because a duke has an annual income of 1,200 gold pieces a year does not mean the Duke can swim in a pile of coins like Scrooge McDuck or commission the creation of legendary magical items. There is probably going to be some pressure to build public works either for the good of the realm or to show off. The Duke is expected to make donations to some or all of
the Nine's priest, toss the peasants a few nice things like a yearly festival or entertaining tournament. Most important of all the Duke has to train and equip his men at arms and pay their wages.
Counts, barons, and knights have their own expectations for generosity as well.
There are a lot of nobles that make large incomes on paper, but are still buried under proverbial mountains of debt.
Well actually...
Scarterra was created by an underemployed Economic major with lots of time of on his hands. There are always exceptions to the normal market rates.
All the math in this article assumes normal conditions. If there is a wide pool of surplus labor, the price of everything goes down. Less commonly, if a specific skill is in high demand the price goes up.
If there are teeming masses of unskilled laborers, it’s unlikely that anyone is paid less than 2 copper pieces because 2 copper pieces a day is roughly sustenance income, but no one gets paid extra for dangerous or degrading work. Along those lines, if nearly every adult in the area is in the local militia than no one gets paid extra for being in the militia unless the local lord is very generous.
Skilled trades usually fluctuate in prices based on specific factors. Weapon smiths generally have less steady work during peacetime than wartime.
If there is are theurgists magically healing people for free, the demand for non-magic using doctors goes down a lot. If there is a plague or war going on than the demand for doctors goes up.
Performers generally have to travel. If they stay in one place too long, people will get bored of their act and they will start to make less money. A performer that is lucky enough to win the favor of a rich patron can expect to make a lot more money than normal.
Apprentices that are studying under famously skilled masters probably make a bit less money than other apprentices. The
real wages that the apprentices get is the training they receive. This is even more true if there is a surplus of unskilled labor.
Everyonewants to get their children into a skilled trade so would-be mentors can set the terms for apprenticeships however they want.
I could also adjust money up based on high attributes. A dancer with Performance ●●●, Dexterity ●●●● and Appearance ●●●● is going to be able to demand a lot more money for performances than one with Performance ●●● and ●● in Dexterity and Appearance, but that’s a level of complexity that is probably unnecessary. High attributes are mostly the province of adventurers and very important NPCs. Most commoners have ●● in every attribute with maybe one or two ●●●s.
For more details on cost of living, check out the article:
Cost of Living at different lifestyles for details.
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