Your workers aren't free. Now your game knows it.
Install · Configure · Console Commands · Report a Bug · Request a Feature
In vanilla FS25, hired AI workers cost nothing. That makes labor a free resource — which kills any incentive to manage your workforce strategically.
Realistic Worker Costs fixes that. Every AI worker you hire accumulates wages in real time and bills your farm at regular intervals. You choose how you want to pay them — by the hour or by the hectare — and you set the rate. Cheap labor, fair wages, or premium crew: the choice has consequences.
The mod ships with a full in-game manager UI (accessible from the pause menu), integrates with the vanilla settings screen, and exposes everything via console commands.
| Feature | Detail | |
|---|---|---|
| 💰 | Two payment modes | Hourly $/h or Per Hectare $/ha — switch at any time |
| 📊 | Three wage tiers | Low · Medium · High — with a custom rate override |
| 🧠 | Skill-based multipliers | Higher-skill workers earn 80 %–120 % of the base rate |
| 🖥️ | In-game manager | Dedicated pause-menu tab with 4 pages: Dashboard, Wage Settings, Worker Stats, About |
| ⚙️ | Vanilla settings integration | Controls also injected into the standard Settings screen |
| 🔔 | Payment notifications | HUD popup on every payment cycle (toggleable) |
| ⏱️ | Real-time timing | Wages scale with real elapsed time — not game speed |
| 👷 | Dismissed-worker payouts | Workers fired mid-interval still get paid for time worked |
| 🌐 | 10 languages | EN · DE · FR · PL · ES · IT · CZ · PT · UK · RU |
| 🤝 | Multiplayer ready | Full support for co-op and dedicated servers |
| 💾 | Per-savegame settings | Each save has its own configuration |
| 🎮 | Console commands | Full control via the in-game developer console |
The built-in manager — accessible from the pause menu.
More screenshots
Wage Settings tab — configure cost mode, wage level, and see the live rate preview.
Worker Stats tab — per-worker cost breakdown refreshed every 500 ms.
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Go to the Releases page
-
Download
FS25_WorkerCosts.zip -
Drop the zip (do not extract) into your mods folder:
Documents\My Games\FarmingSimulator2025\mods\ -
Launch FS25, enable the mod in the Mod Manager, and start your save
Steam users: Right-click the game → Manage → Browse local files to find your mods path if it differs.
git clone https://github.com/TheCodingDad-TisonK/FS25_WorkerCosts.git
cd FS25_WorkerCosts
bash build.sh --deployOpen the pause menu → click the Realistic Worker Costs tab (the worker icon).
| Page | What's here |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Live status: active workers, next payment countdown, farm balance |
| Wage Settings | Cost mode, wage level, notifications, debug toggle, reset button |
| Worker Stats | Per-worker cost breakdown, refreshed every 500 ms |
| About | How the mod works, wage reference table, current version |
The mod also injects a Worker Costs Mod section into Pause → Settings → Game — useful if you prefer the native settings flow. A Reset Settings button is added to that screen's footer.
| Setting | Options | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mod Enabled | On / Off | On | Master switch |
| Cost Mode | Hourly / Per Hectare | Hourly | See Wage System |
| Wage Level | Low / Medium / High | Medium | Ignored when Custom Rate > 0 |
| Custom Rate | Any number ≥ 0 | 0 | Set to 0 to use Wage Level |
| Notifications | On / Off | On | HUD popup on each payment |
| Debug Mode | On / Off | Off | Enables [Worker Costs] log lines |
Workers are paid every 5 real-world minutes. The timer runs in real time regardless of your in-game time-speed setting — 4× speed does not charge you 4× more.
Workers dismissed mid-interval are automatically settled at the next payment tick — no unpaid labour.
wage = base_rate × hours_worked × skill_multiplier
| Tier | Base Rate | Min (skill 0%) | Standard (skill 50%) | Max (skill 100%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | $15 /h | $12 /h | $15 /h | $18 /h |
| Medium | $25 /h | $20 /h | $25 /h | $30 /h |
| High | $40 /h | $32 /h | $40 /h | $48 /h |
Example: 3 workers on Medium, running for the full 5-minute interval:
$25 × (5/60) hours × 1.0 skill × 3 workers = ~$6.25
wage = base_rate × hectares_worked × skill_multiplier
Ideal for large field operations — you pay for output, not clock time. Note: implements that don't expose worked area data will report 0 ha and incur no charge.
Set any positive number in Custom Rate to bypass the tier system entirely. Set it back to 0 to resume using the Wage Level setting.
Open the console with the ~ key:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
workerCosts |
List all available commands |
workerCostsStatus |
Show current mod status and active rate |
WorkerCostsEnable |
Enable the mod |
WorkerCostsDisable |
Disable the mod |
WorkerCostsSetWageLevel 1|2|3 |
1 = Low · 2 = Medium · 3 = High |
WorkerCostsSetCostMode 1|2 |
1 = Hourly · 2 = Per Hectare |
WorkerCostsSetNotifications true|false |
Toggle payment HUD popups |
WorkerCostsSetCustomRate <amount> |
Custom rate (0 = use Wage Level) |
WorkerCostsTestPayment |
Deduct a $100 test charge |
WorkerCostsShowSettings |
Full settings dump |
WorkerCostsResetSettings |
Reset everything to defaults |
wcReloadGui |
Reload the mod GUI without restarting |
Workers aren't being charged
- Run
workerCostsStatus— confirmEnabled: true - Make sure AI workers are actually hired and active (not just vehicles parked)
- Turn on Debug Mode and watch
log.txtfor[Worker Costs]lines - Run
WorkerCostsTestPayment— if $100 is deducted, the payment system is working fine and the issue is worker detection
Mod doesn't appear in the Settings screen
- Confirm the mod is enabled in the Mod Manager before loading the save
- Check
log.txtfor any load errors - The mod section appears under Pause → Settings → Game — scroll down if needed
Settings aren't saving between sessions
Settings are stored per-savegame at:
Documents\My Games\FarmingSimulator2025\saves\savegame<N>\FS25_WorkerCostsMod.xml
If that file is missing or can't be written, the mod falls back to defaults each load. Check folder permissions.
Per-hectare mode charges nothing
Not all implements expose worked-area data to the game's AI system. If the implement your worker is using doesn't report hectares, the mod has no area to bill — this is a limitation of the FS25 API, not a bug. Switch to Hourly mode for those workflows.
Where is the log file?
Documents\My Games\FarmingSimulator2025\log.txt
Search for [Worker Costs] — all mod activity (when Debug Mode is on) and any errors are tagged with this prefix.
- New: daily hiring limit — hire at most 5 workers from the Hiring Hall per in-game day; the counter resets each morning, survives reload, and you get a clear notice when you hit the cap (#69)
- New: Trusted employees — star a worker in the Pro-Staff Panel to keep them pinned at the top of the list; the status is saved and shows for everyone in multiplayer (#67)
- New: earned mastery — Master workers no longer turn up in the recruitment pool; Master is now reached only by working and gaining XP, and Experienced recruits unlock as your staff put in the hours (#68)
- New: job history — every worker keeps a short resume of recent jobs (completed, dismissed, or failed, with hours and a cost estimate), recorded the moment a job ends (#66)
- New: full multiplayer — the roster is host-authoritative and syncs to every client; clients can hire, fire, and assign and the result broadcasts back to everyone
- New: recruitment pool — a rotating set of candidates with their own level and one-off signing cost; hire a specific candidate or reroll the pool
- New: cross-mod command + financial API —
hireWorker/fireWorker/assignWorkerplus an enriched roster snapshot (per-worker effective rate, severance, and Pro-Staff cost impact) for the Farm Tablet Personnel app - Change: the Pro-Staff Panel (ALT+H) now routes through the same command pipeline, so a host action also syncs to clients and hiring applies the signing cost everywhere
- New: Pro-Staff roster — the mod now keeps a real list of hired workers that survives save/reload, instead of nameless one-off helpers
- New: workers gain XP from hours worked and rank up Novice → Experienced → Master (40h / 160h), with a promotion notice
- New: fatigue builds up as workers run jobs and recovers while they rest, feeding into the wage pipeline
- New: advanced wage pipeline — base retainer plus hourly rate modified by level, fatigue, night, weather, and overtime
- New: hire / fire / severance and durable vehicle assignment — pin a worker to a vehicle and the pin survives save/reload
- New: clickable Pro-Staff Panel — open with ALT+H (rebindable) or the
WorkerCostsRosterconsole command to hire, fire, and assign without the console - New: Farm Tablet integration — the WorkerCosts app now shows the roster (level, hours, jobs, fatigue) when FS25_FarmTablet is installed
- Note: roster management is host/single-player for now; multiplayer client sync is coming in a follow-up
- Fixed: Payment Strategy and Compensation Tier reverted to defaults after a save/reload — settings are now reloaded once the savegame is available, so your choices stick
- Changed: renamed "Cost Mode" to Payment Strategy and "Wage Level" to Compensation Tier in the Wage Settings tab
- Polish: removed the duplicate row labels under each section header in the Wage Settings tab
- Fixed: per-hectare mode showed mode-name string as a cost value in Worker Stats tab
- Fixed: worker cost rows showed a
+prefix (implying income) — corrected to- - Fixed:
farmId == 0guard in payment system (spectator slot in multiplayer) - Fixed:
WCAboutFramehardcoded fallback version — now reads live fromg_modManager - Polish:
workerCostsStatusandShowSettingscommands now show/hor/hacorrectly - Polish: bare
print()calls replaced withLogging.info()throughout - Polish: all file header version numbers brought in sync
- Added: full in-game manager accessible from the pause menu
- Added: 4-tab inner UI — Dashboard, Wage Settings, Worker Stats, About
- Added: custom tab icon spritesheet with per-tab pictograms
- Added: per-page header icons
- Fixed:
addMoneyhook narrowed to only suppressMoneyType.WORKER_WAGES
- Fixed: replaced
environment.dayTimewith real-timedt— eliminated ~20× overcharge at high game speeds - Fixed: dismissed workers now receive a final payout at the next settlement tick
- Fixed:
WorkerSettingsUIlocalgetTextSaferestored after refactor
- Hourly and per-hectare payment modes
- Three wage tiers with skill multipliers
- Vanilla settings screen integration
- Console commands
- 10-language support
| Language | Code | Language | Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | en |
Czech | cz |
| German | de |
Portuguese (BR) | br |
| French | fr |
Ukrainian | uk |
| Polish | pl |
Russian | ru |
| Spanish | es |
Italian | it |
Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a PR.
- Branch off
development— never commit directly tomain - Test in-game before submitting
- Use the issue templates for bug reports and feature requests
This project is licensed under the MIT License — see LICENSE for details.