Income Subsidy

Every named Character in your gang needs a minimum income each week with which to support himself and his personal family, without which he will be drawing on his 'Personal Account' (wealth previously earned) and would become increasingly unhappy. In some cases it will be necessary for the Boss to provide an Income Subsidy to offset the negative morale affect of a gang member on low income, although you always have the option of refusing such payment if you're willing to take the risks involved. Where required, Income Subsidies are paid automatically each week unless you specifically order a particular payment to cease. Characters on low income would generally be those newly hired (before their first racket operation gets properly underway) and those imprisoned for their crimes.

Income subsidies are not expected in times of war, when many characters will be on low income solely for being unable to attend to their normal Business Operations. However, you may still choose to pay a Subsidy to some or all Characters so affected, should you wish. This would reduce morale loss to some extent but might swiftly drain your Boss' surplus cash if most of this has previously been invested or loaned.

The Income Subsidy required will vary from one gang member to the next, and will increase over time. The minimum you can expect would be about $300 a week for a newly-hired (or imprisoned) Underworld Character, rising steeply for higher ranks and those on the semi-legitimate side of the organization - Lawyers, Accountants and Political Lobbyists.

For obvious reasons it is usually better to have any new Character swiftly earning his own income. Not only will this be more valuable to him (and therefore make him happier than do your subsidy hand-outs), you will also receive a percentage of his income in 'Tribute', which is paid up the ranks until it reaches you, the Boss. Most new named Characters will not, however, have much money of their own available to invest in new rackets. Unless given a low-cost racket to operate the Boss will likely need to loan most new named Characters a sum of money to invest in a new racket. Any cash transfers from your Boss to a gang member will be recorded as owing in that Character's 'Boss Loans' Account, which accrues interest for you. Some or all of the amount owed will be paid back from this Character's 'Business Expansion' Account at some future time, once he is earning a reasonable amount each week. Alternatively you may at any time demand partial payment if the Character concerned has any funds in this account.

The quickest means of enabling a new Character to earn his own income is to transfer to him an existing Racket operation (or perhaps a Legitimate Business), from your gang's 'Inactive Rackets' screen. While this will not currently be in full working order, neither will it be an entirely new racket, so the time requirement needed to once again make it profitable will be much shorter than for a brand new racket. On average it will take only half the time to reach full profitability than might a brand new racket, due to the work previously done on this operation by the Character formerly in control of it. The time requirement will however increase the longer a racket is listed on the 'Inactive Rackets' screen, being eventually totally abandoned (and removed from the Inactive listing) once this reaches the level equivalent to a brand new racket.