But can an unlicensed mechanic make the same money as a licensed one? Depends on what sort of work he's doing. If he's doing illegal work for the shadow community, then they won't care about licenses, and he can charge extra for the risk he's taking and his silence afterwards.
I figure that the cost of warding is what it is because so many are capable of and willing to do it; a lot more people can put up a ward than have the skills to be a combat mage. (Nor is the SR equivalent of $100/hour small potatoes.) Even if only 1% of the population was Awakened and only 10% of the Awakened did wards as either a primary or side buiness, that would still be 3,000 providers in the Seattle Metroplex. Anybody who tries to charge more would have to have a pretty good reason for people to pay extra for them when others are only charging 100Y x Force. You'd think that if this PC was only charging 50Y/hour, he'd be innundated with work or else have a ton of mages after his ass for price gouging... or both. Then again, a ward provider does have to be trustworthy... you're giving them access to the place that you want protected.
We've all sort of skipped the other question he asked, which was about leasing spirits for security work. That he should be able to charge a lot for, because to get the spirits to stick around more than a day they'd have to be bound, and that requires 500Y x Force in materials and taking a serious risk of injury from Drain and an uncontrolled spirit rampage.
