Cost of living – survey results

HR software provider Ciphr polled 1,000 UK adults to find out how rising living costs are impacting them at work.

Of the 1,000 employees surveyed across the UK, three in four (76%) said they have felt stressed or overwhelmed at times because of increases to their cost of living, nearly a third (31%) have asked their employer for a pay rise, and over a third (34%) have been actively looking for a better paying job.

Four-fifths (79%) of respondents have cut their household spending during the last six months (up from 67% in 2022). While many have made further ‘savings’ by reducing their pension contributions (14%) and personal insurance cover (17%), such as income protection, medical or dental insurance.

Fear of losing out on wages has also led over half (52%) of respondents to carry on working when they were feeling unwell (up from 46% in 2022). For those with in-person roles that figure rises to nearly two-thirds, with 64% of workplace-based staff saying that they can’t afford to take time off work when they’re sick, compared to two-fifths (38%) of hybrid and remote workers.

↓↓↓ Scroll down for the full results of Ciphr’s annual cost of living survey ↓↓↓

How is the cost-of-living crisis impacting UK workers?

People across the UK may share similar concerns when it comes to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, but not everyone is affected equally. The chart below highlights some of the actions that individuals have taken to try and increase their wages (or make their wages go further) amid record levels of UK inflation and rising living costs.

In the last six months:

• Two-fifths (79%) of survey respondents have cut their household spending
• Nearly a third (31%) have requested a pay rise, and one in five (19%) have asked for a promotion
• One in 10 has asked their employer for a ‘one-off’ cost of living payment or bonus
• Nearly a fifth (19%) have taken on an additional job
• One in nine (11%) has recently changed employers (for a better paid job)
• And, a third (34%) of the employees surveyed are actively looking for jobs with a higher salary

Changes that workers have made or requested due to increased living costs

In the last six months:

• Over half (55%) of the women surveyed said they had worked through illness because they couldn't afford to lose any wages, compared to 47% of the men surveyed
• Over a third (36%) of male survey respondents have asked for a pay rise in 2023, compared to just a quarter (26%) of female survey respondents
• Men appear twice as likely as women to have asked their employer for a 'one-off' cost of living payment or bonus (14% vs 7%)
• Women appear more likely to report that they have felt stressed about cost-of-living increases than men (80% vs 70%)

Cost of living survey results 2023: by job role

One in four (25%) of the 1,000 UK employees surveyed by Ciphr work at manager-level and above. The remaining 75% of those polled work in non-management roles. The chart below highlights the differences (if any) between the survey responses for both groups of people.

In the last six months:

• Two-fifths (39%) of managers surveyed have asked for a pay rise this year, compared to just over a quarter (28%) of non-management staff surveyed
• Individuals that work at manager-level and above also appear more likely to have asked for a 'one-off' cost of living payment or bonus, compared to non-management staff (15% vs 9%)
• Over half (52%) of non-management staff said that they had attended work when sick as they couldn't afford to take time off and lose wages, compared to 45% of managers
• Non-management staff appear more likely to have cut back on household spending due to rising living costs in 2023 than management staff (83% vs 72%)

Cost of living survey results 2023: by industry

The charts below highlight how survey respondents employed in different industries have been impacted by the cost of living crisis in 2023.

• Two-fifths of survey respondents working in manufacturing (43%), IT and software (42%), and finance and insurance (40%) asked for a pay rise in the first six months of 2023
• Respondents working in marketing, advertising and sales appear the most likely to have recently changed employer
• Respondents working in retail and wholesaling, followed by those in IT and software, appear the most likely to be actively job hunting for a better paid role
• The industries that appear most likely to have staff attending work while sick are hospitality and food service, and retail and wholesaling (78% and 70% of surveyed employees in those industries respectively report working through illness to avoid losing wages). The numbers for transportation, warehousing, shipping and distribution, and construction are also high (62% and 61% respectively)
• Those working in education, and hospitality and food service, are the most likely to report that they have felt stressed about cost-of-living increases (85% and 82% respectively)
• Over two-thirds of those working in transportation, warehousing, shipping and distribution, construction, and retail and wholesaling have taken on more hours or extra shifts at work (69%, 66% and 66% respectively)

Use the drop-down menu to reveal the proportion of survey respondents (by industry) that have asked for a pay rise, changed employer, started actively job hunting for a better paid role, or that have worked when they were unwell, instead of taking time off sick because they couldn't afford to lose any wages:

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2023 vs 2022: how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting more UK employees

Ciphr's research suggests that the number of UK employees being affected by the cost-of-living crisis has increased since last year.

Comparing the results from Ciphr's June 2023 cost of living survey with those from a similar survey taken a year earlier (in May 2022) reveals that more employees are cutting back on their household spending, and more are struggling to buy food or pay their bills – despite many working more hours, or shifts, than they previously did.

One of the few statistics that hasn't really increased – perhaps because it was already significantly high in 2022 – is that three in four (76%) of those polled have felt stressed or overwhelmed about the ongoing cost-of-living crisis in 2023 (vs 75% in 2022).

• Four in five survey respondents (79%) have cut their household spending as at June 2023, an increase of 12 percentage points since 2022 (67%)
• Over two-fifths (43%) have struggled to pay bills or buy food, an increase of six percentage points since 2022 (37%)
• Nearly half (46%) have taken on more hours or extra shifts at work, an increase of 15 percentage points since 2022 (31%)
• Over half (52%) of employees surveyed have worked through illness to avoid taking time off sick in 2023, an increase of six percentage points since 2022 (46%)
• In 2022, around one in five (21%) people had requested a pay rise, by 2023 the proportion has increased to nearly a third (31%)
• Less than a third (27%) of workers were reportedly considering looking for a better paid job in May 2022. A year later, over a third (34%) are said to be actively job hunting for an alternative position

Notes

This page was refreshed in June 2023 to show Ciphr's latest 'Cost of living survey' data.

Ciphr conducted an online survey (between 12-15 June 2023) of 1,000 UK adults working at organisations with at least 26 employees. It featured a range of questions on various employment topics. The survey is unweighted, and as such is only a snapshot of the working age population.

Nearly half (48%) of survey respondents are employed by organisations with 1,001+ employees, a fifth (21%) work at organisations with 251 to 1,000 employees, and nearly a third (31%) work at organisations with 26 to 250 employees.

Questions asked in the survey included: Have you done any of the following actions over the last six months (since January 2023) because of increases in your cost of living / rising living costs?

Ciphr's 2022 'Cost of living survey' was conducted in May 2022. It polled 1,006 UK adults working at organisations with at least 26 employees.