How much do Sheffielders make?

Dear readers – £32,728. That, according to the Office for National Statistics, is the median salary in Sheffield. The mean average is a bit more: £38,477.

But averages disguise just as much as they tell us, and there’s a massive range in how much cash people have coming in. That’s why I’m standing nervously on the Moor, about to break every social taboo in the book and ask the most intrusive question imaginable:

How much money do you make?

Remarkably, some brave souls were willing to give us the down low on their finances. We’ve got everything from sushi chefs to accountants, heating engineers to content creators.

Patrick, 30, a warehouse operative for FedEx 

£400 a week

Patrick studied engineering, but “in this economy, you have to do what you have to do to pay the bills”. For the past four months, he’s been working night shifts at the vast FedEx packing and sorting facility in Rotherham, from midnight until 8am, a shift pattern he does five times a week. He doesn’t drive, so he takes the bus each time – the 10.48pm bus from Moor Market gets him to the industrial estate in Rotherham for around 11.38pm, if it’s running on time. 

He pays £485 a month in rent for his house near Bramall Lane and earns around £400 a week – after paying rent, he says he has “a fair bit of change” to play with. Night shifts sound gruelling, I venture, but he insists he’s happy and gets by on four to five hours sleep.

Bhanu, 47, the fabric shop owner

Between £2,000 and £3,000 a month during peak season 

Bhanu set up her market stall in the Moor Market around two years ago. She usually works six days a week, but sometimes she does five to catch up with housework and sends her husband to manage things in her absence. Her stall looks out on the food hall section of the market, which closes at 2pm, at which point footfall tends to drop off, so she’s hoping for a move to a busier part of the market.

She says her business is growing every month, but she thinks the cost of living is putting her customers off buying everything they want. “They want more things to buy but their pocket doesn’t allow,” she says. The best times for business are at the end of the month, when people get paid their salaries, Tuesdays, when people collect their pension, and Fridays, when some hospitality workers get their weekly wages.

Vanessa, 27, the YO! Sushi chef

£13.21 an hour

I ran into Vanessa in Oseyo, the new Korean supermarket on the Moor, where she’s shopping for ingredients for a dinner she’s cooking with a friend. She says she’s an aspiring fashion designer who studied textiles at university but lately she’s put those dreams on hold. “I need a job for the time being,” she says. She wanted something that felt more productive than sitting behind a desk, and having learned from her mum, an excellent cook, she wondered if she could be a chef. Being a sushi chef can be painstaking, precise work, but she says that “Once you know what you’re doing, it’s fine.” 

Mani, 31, the social media content creator