How Much Prostitutes Earn Revealed In New Study - The Mirror

How much prostitutes earn revealed in new study - and how many hours they work to get it

Most sex workers earn less than £20,000 a year but have a high level of job satisfaction

CommentsNewsNeil Shaw and Max Channon19:37, 23 Jan 2018Updated 14:08, 28 May 2020

The national average wage for a prostitute has been revealed - and it may not be as high as you were expecting.

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On average, sex workers take home £27,271 a year and more than half of earn less than £20,000.

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But the big difference between prostitution and other professions is that more than half of sex workers worked 10 hours or fewer per week.

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And despite the risks involved, they have a high level of job satisfaction as they can decide what work they choose to do, Devon Live reports.

According to a new study, around 10% earn more than £50,000 - often by putting in more hours entertaining clients.

‌READ MORE: Serial killer ground prostitutes into mince and sold them to the police who were hunting him

Like many professions, the internet has also transformed how they do business.

Since 2000 many sex workers have moved from “the street corner” to online and now is the largest sector of the UK sex industry.

More than four fifths said the internet allowed them to work safely and to get help from other colleagues through social media and messaging apps. But nearly half feared being "outed" and four fifths still experienced at least one form of work-related crime.

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Around three fifths reported persistent or repeated unwanted contact or threatening or harassing texts, calls or emails. A half said they had client who refused to pay or attempted to underpay and had suffered verbally abused.

But they experience lower levels of violence and other crimes than street workers. Yet only under a quarter who were crime victims reported it to the police, two fifths said they were reluctant to and a third said they would never come forward.

‌READ MORE: Second Thai prostitute found dead in a week after she was heard screaming for help

Researchers from the Universities of Leicester and Strathclyde carried out the first UK-wide and largest survey of online sex work, examining working conditions, safety and policing of the industry.

The survey Beyond the Gaze did not look at those forced into the sex trade by traffickers.

The study included the largest online surveys carried of 641 sex workers of all genders and 1,323 clients.

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The majority of sex workers who took part were escorts, webcam workers, phone sex workers, "Miss Whiplash" bondage workers or sexual masseurs.

Other sex work jobs included adult films, modelling, agency work, brothel work, exotic dance and street sex work. Around 73% were women, 19% male, 3% transgender and 3% non-binary or intersex.

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A third were educated to A'Level, a quarter had a degree and a sixth a postgraduate degree.

The majority - 72 per cent - were self-employed sole traders working alone rather than in brothels.

Principal Investigator Professor Teela Sanders at the University of Leicester said: "There is little research about online sex work despite it being the largest sector of the UK sex industry.

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"We've carried out a significant study examining how online and digital technology has reshaped the sex industry, working practices, safety issues for workers and how the police and other authorities have responded.

"We're really excited to publish our findings and we hope they will make a contribution to informing policy, practice, law and wider public education."