The "realistic" reason behind this is that your recruits did not sign
away their lives to do the same thing that they could do all by
themselves -- sit around and and work for little pay! They signed up
with you not only to get 50 gold to blow buying booze but because
you've promised to show them the world, lead them to riches, and make
them powerful members of your faction.
The play-balance reason behind this change is simple -- we want to
allow WORK to raise sufficient funds for things like supporting study,
while preventing people from WORKing their units all the time as their
prime income source. This change does both -- you either let your guys
sit idle for half the month, or you figure out something interesting
to do with them. It also removes some silly things about the current
reality -- if you have a large group of men, it costs a fantastic
amount of lost WORK income to move them anywhere.
Comments? I know I'll get rotten tomatoes from many quarters for this
plan, but I believe that it is a better scheme than just dividing work
income by 2.