Saeviomagy
Adventurer
I don't think that changing the numbers is worthwhile. The D&D gp system is just to simplify accounting. Making it more realistic will be lost on most players and a negative for most others.
Given that, I think you can explain a lot of the D&D monetary inconsistencies away. For example: adventurers tend to get treasure hordes made up of coins that are old, from far away etc etc. So when the innkeeper is charging them 10gp a night, or a wizard is pulling 50gp from them to cast a spell, it's because they're taking a risk on unknown coinage, not because the spell is worth 5 days of living like an aristocrat, or because the inkeeper pulls in tens of thousands of gold pieces a year.
Likewise you can significantly inflate the value paid by mundane employers without them actually blowing that much money: it's just that the coins they hand out are worth more because they're standard coin of the realm, and the prices in the PHB are inflated to match the adventurer economy.
Given that, I think you can explain a lot of the D&D monetary inconsistencies away. For example: adventurers tend to get treasure hordes made up of coins that are old, from far away etc etc. So when the innkeeper is charging them 10gp a night, or a wizard is pulling 50gp from them to cast a spell, it's because they're taking a risk on unknown coinage, not because the spell is worth 5 days of living like an aristocrat, or because the inkeeper pulls in tens of thousands of gold pieces a year.
Likewise you can significantly inflate the value paid by mundane employers without them actually blowing that much money: it's just that the coins they hand out are worth more because they're standard coin of the realm, and the prices in the PHB are inflated to match the adventurer economy.
