Top industries where a quarter of respondents said they struggle financially within the first two weeks of getting paid include:

Business/ Consulting / Managerial – 25%

Insurance – 24%

Creative Arts – 20%

Armed Forces – 19.51%

Social Care – 17%

The majority of respondents said they start to struggle financially in the third week of getting paid, with the highest strain going to Emergency Services where over 40% said they struggle financially in the third week. Those working in retail and catering said their salaries are simply not suitable enough to live on, and 17.54% of those working in manual labour said they wanted an additional £150-200 a month to have a suitable wage to live on. But, if you work in any of these industries you might be waiting a lot longer than you thought for a pay rise.  Nearly 35% of those working in Emergency Services said they haven’t had a pay rise in two years and 23% of those working in hospitality/ leisure/ tourism said they have never had a pay rise. It’s not surprising that 40% of overall respondents said they do not manage to save anything on a monthly basis, and a further 40% have had to turn to other financial forms of support to get them through to the next pay day.

Ages hit the hardest seem to be 18-24 year olds as after all the expenses and bills, they have the lowest amount to live on, averaging at £204 a month.

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