What set classical Athens apart from almost all other Hellenic poleis was its institution of public pay. By this we mean the payment of a specific sum for serving in various state posts. The best-known types of pay were:
a) jury pay: Pay to judges and juries. This dates from the time of the reforms of Ephialtes in 462/1 B.C. Kleon set it at three obols. After the costly campaign in Euboea in 349/8 B.C., the Athenian state was no longer able to continue providing the previous amounts.
b) council pay: This was paid down for those taking part in the Council. It was a kind of compensation (made, in theory, because they were unable to attend to their jobs) and it amounted to the sum of five obols, plus an extra obol for people serving on the presidential board.
c) assembly pay: By this we mean payment for taking part in the People's Assembly. This measure was introduced by one Agyrios. Originally the amount was one obol; but it was later increased, by Heracleides of Clazomenai, to two obols, and ultimately, again by Agyrios, to three obols.

These were not the only ways of increasing their income Athenian citizens had. They could also join in the city's building programme. Even while at war with Sparta, Athens was still, in 409/8-408/7 B.C., in a position to pay Erechtheion labourers a drachma a day.
Athenian males could also come by regular earnings as rowers, and a share of plunder after a successful campaign. Lastly, there were the quays of the Piraeus. They offered not only a host of opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers, but employment for five hundred citizens as guards.