Most U.K. Sex Workers Once Held Jobs in the Mainstream Economy, Study Shows
More than 70 percent of sex workers in the U.K. previously worked in health care, education or charities—while more than a third hold university degrees, according to one of the largest surveys of the industry ever taken.
22Lauren (CC BY 2.0)
More than 70 percent of sex workers in the U.K. previously worked in health care, education or charities—while more than a third hold university degrees, according to one of the largest surveys of the industry ever taken.
The Guardian reports:
The academic research, carried out by Leeds University and funded by the Wellcome Trust, also reveals the pressures that lead people to enter the sex industry, with one respondent saying she could not keep up her mortgage repayments while earning £50 a day as an NHS care assistant. …
One sex worker in her early 50s, known as Abbie, said the research reflected her experience. She had worked for many years in the NHS as a care assistant in a hospital before deciding to change direction and become a sex worker.
“I was doing six 13-hour shifts a week in a hospital just so that I could keep up my mortgage payments. Even working such long hours I failed to keep up the repayments and lost my home. I decided I wanted an easier life and as a sex worker that’s what I’ve got. In the NHS I was earning £50 a day, now I earn £100 an hour and work on average just 163 days a year.”
Read more here.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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