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<blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 3511027" data-attributes="member: 30001">There was a class of person in the historical middle ages that they call a cottar.&nbsp; He had enough land maybe to barely keep his family alive, but him, his wife, and their older children would hire out their labor at harvest time and such (this was in addition to whatever work was required by the lord).&nbsp; I'm not even sure I would class a head of household's earnings at 1 sp/day.&nbsp; I would probably say that 1 sp/day refers to the labor price for a woman (in the sexist middle ages) or teen-ager/child - or those classes of people that would make the equivalent of minimum wage in our society.&nbsp; A maid might fall into this category, she sleeps in the castle hall, eats leftovers from the kitchen, and gets a gift of new clothes at Christmas time.&nbsp; Such positions were considered prestige jobs in castles though, so I'd probably up the wages from those paid to farm workers (or at least effective wages once you count gifts).A google search on medieval wages led by to a page for a &quot;thatcher&quot;, and someone called a &quot;thatcher's mate&quot; (this is someone who thatches roofs, plus his wife).&nbsp; The wages, on average, were about double for the thatcher as for his mate.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="gizmo33, post: 3511027, member: 30001"] There was a class of person in the historical middle ages that they call a cottar. He had enough land maybe to barely keep his family alive, but him, his wife, and their older children would hire out their labor at harvest time and such (this was in addition to whatever work was required by the lord). I'm not even sure I would class a head of household's earnings at 1 sp/day. I would probably say that 1 sp/day refers to the labor price for a woman (in the sexist middle ages) or teen-ager/child - or those classes of people that would make the equivalent of minimum wage in our society. A maid might fall into this category, she sleeps in the castle hall, eats leftovers from the kitchen, and gets a gift of new clothes at Christmas time. Such positions were considered prestige jobs in castles though, so I'd probably up the wages from those paid to farm workers (or at least effective wages once you count gifts). A google search on medieval wages led by to a page for a "thatcher", and someone called a "thatcher's mate" (this is someone who thatches roofs, plus his wife). The wages, on average, were about double for the thatcher as for his mate. [/QUOTE]

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