UK professionals working in London are actually the poorest, despite earning the second highest average salary in the UK, due to high living costs.
This is according to CV-Library, who found London, Manchester and Bristol have the poorest workers. With Aberdeen, Hull and Edinburgh being the richest.
Scotland provides workers with the highest disposable income with Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow being in the top four richest cities.
The highest monthly salaries are in Aberdeen, London and Edinburgh with the lowest being in Sheffield, Leicester and Liverpool. However, disposable income in London has dropped to 42 per cent.
Hull is the cheapest city to rent in, followed by Sheffield and then Leicester.
Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library said:
It’s clear from our findings that the North/South divide still very much remains here in the UK; particularly when it comes to pay and living costs. Companies are certainly under pressure to offer fair salaries that reflect the cost of living in their location and that’s why it’s important to factor this in when negotiating on pay with an existing or future employer. Living beyond your means can be extremely stressful so stay in tune with average costs in the town or city that you live and work in.
We know that these are uncertain times and it’s interesting to note that pay has gone up in a lot of major cities across the UK. The key driving force behind this is the fact that businesses are struggling to hire right now and are therefore pulling out all the stops in a bid to attract more people to their roles.
At the same time, costs are rising in other areas: from travel and living, to a pint of your favourite tipple down the pub. Knowing how to manage your money is crucial and always a good focal point to think about when starting your job search in the New Year.
In order to gather this data, CV-Library compared the same basic living costs against average salaries in 18 of the UK’s key cities.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.