Isn't the pay supposed to be at least enough for a commoner to afford his rent, buy food and drink and an occasional change of clothes?

I know that underpaid guards are a fantasy cliche, and I never had any trouble with money anyway when I played a Trib. Not after playing in Empire where you need to give money away to stay afloat!

But with the current pay size, you might as well abstract it away and just have PCs pretend that they are paid for their work. In fact that's what they do currently, and since pays are implemented, I want them to matter.