For the most part it seems balanced (starving artist on the verge of selling her body) except for Gadunkino.Directly converting Rubles to dollars isn't a gret test as everything is valued much lower. We have where possible used prices from St Pete's to set prices in game and talked to the Russians in our community to get things in the right ranges. Something we want is fo it to be tough to live on a regular wage as an extra pressure to pursue sexual options to make ends meet. I think the game would be a bit boring if you ran it as a straight life sim working a deadend job and barely scraping by.
The berry picking got nurfed and now you can make 150 per day initially until you are comfortable in the forest and 300 after. (Two bottles of water and a sandwich). You can make up to 500 per day but rarely. Makes it not worth exploring if you play the transform start, all the other jobs pay better for less time. If you play the student start it's still not enough to want to stay in Gadunkino and spend the summer.
In Pav you can make 910 a day, plus tips in the hotel when you become experienced. (3 locations) In the city at the market you can make over 1k per day when you figure out how to sell.