Brits believe they deserve more than £5k on top of their current salary, according to research.
A study of 2,000 fulltime UK employees revealed the average worker believes they deserve £5,321 on top of their existing salary.
The majority put this down to working extremely hard and deserving recognition for it.
Others justified a pay rise because they work weekends, have a lot of qualifications or get a lot of praise from colleagues.
Three in ten simply put it down to not having had a pay rise in a while and it being long overdue.
The study was conducted by OnePoll.com to find out what percentage of the nation feel they are underpaid, of which seven in ten believe they deserve a bump in their pay cheque.
Louise Harper-King, a spokeswoman for OnePoll.com said: “Most people treat the topic of salary and wages as a bit of a taboo, but it’s important to get recognised for the work you do.
“We weren’t surprised by the results, with many employees feeling undervalued and underappreciated.”
The average full-time employee does nearly six hours of overtime a week so it’s no surprise over a quarter agree they deserve more money for the additional hours they work.
Employees believe they are missing out on holidays, nice dinners and drinks with friends and having a nicer home, all because of an earnings shortfall.
As a result, some Brits will have showers at the office to save on bills with one in five charging their phone at work to cut corners on costs.
A handful admit to re-using teabags and others confess to collecting their shower water in a bucket to top up the plants with.
As a result, Brits are finding ways to get by with one in five borrowing money from family and friends.
Others are picking up additional ‘odd’ jobs and some are even going as far as to re-mortgage.
The research also revealed a gender pay gap in the amount Brits think they deserve in a pay rise.
Men believe they are worthy of a £5,783 increase whereas women think they are deserving of just £4,833 on top of their pay packet.
If given some extra funding on top of their wages, most adults would put money away into their savings, with others buying nicer food during the weekly shop.
One in ten would get new furniture and some would even treat the kids to a nanny.
As a result of falling short, over half of Brits confess it ends up costing them even more in the long run as they purchase cheap products which never last as long and have to be replaced more often.
On average, employees across the UK haven’t seen a pay increase in the last year.
And despite this, just over one quarter have actually asked for a pay rise.
Of those who asked for a boost in their salary, nearly one third didn’t get what they asked.
And just under one in four confess to lying about their salary at a job interview in order to bag a bump.
* For anyone still looking to top up their income, you can register yourself on OnePoll.com (https://members.onepoll.com/sign-up) and get paid to fill in surveys in your spare time.
ENDS
