Almost one third (32%) of the 37% staff who receive their December pay cheque early view it as negative rather than a perk, according to research from Thinkmoney and OnePoll.
The study, which questioned a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults between 21 November and 28 November 2014, also found that 71% of staff struggle to budget over the extra weeks leading up to Christmas.
The survey also found:
- 29% of staff usually run out of money by the time they reach their January payday.
- Women are more likely to regard an early payday as a negative than men, with 25% of female respondents who receive their salary early in December opposing this because it makes budgeting harder, compared with one in five (19%) men who say the same.
- Older workers are more likely to view the early payday in a negative light than their younger counterparts. More than a third (36%) of 35 to 44-year-olds and 45 to 55-year-olds (37%) see being paid early in December as a bad thing, compared with half as many 18 to 24-year-olds (15%) who feel this way.
Ian Williams, a spokesman for Thinkmoney, said: “January really can feel like the longest month for many people, especially for those with the best part of six weeks to wait between paydays.
“Even the best budgeters can find making the money stretch a challenge, especially if some of the credit card statements for Christmas shopping start to drop into their inbox or letterbox.”