Half of the Portuguese staff’s salaries are not enough to cover expenses. The situation of European workers is “very alarming, especially in Portugal and Serbia,” the study said.

According to the first European Barometer of Poverty and Insecurity, published this Wednesday, one in two Portuguese currently working believes that their salary does not cover all their expenses.

A research report by Ipsos said the situation for European workers is “very worrying, especially in Portugal and Serbia.”

“Having a job does not necessarily mean being able to survive financially,” study author Etienne Mercier wrote in a statement, highlighting that this situation affects more than a third (36%) of European workers.

The study, commissioned by the French NGO Secours Populaire Français, surveyed ten thousand people aged 18 years and over in ten countries (Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, UK, Moldova, Portugal, Romania and Serbia). .

Nearly three in 10 Europeans, including 49% of Greeks, said they were in a dangerous situation that forced them to give up certain needs such as adequate food or heating their homes, the barometer warned.

Due to the “difficult financial situation,” 62% of Europeans have already limited their travel, and 46% have refused to heat their homes in winter, despite the cold.

At the same time, 38% of respondents do not eat three times a day, 39% stopped buying meat for reasons of economy, and 10% turn to charitable organizations for food.

The situation has “improved slightly” compared to last year in countries hit hardest by inflation, such as Greece, but remains “very worrying” in all countries covered by the investigation, Secours Populaire Français said.

On the other hand, the barometer highlights that 76% of Europeans said they would be personally involved in helping people living in poverty.

The report says this figure is “particularly high in countries where social disadvantage is most widespread: Greece, Portugal and Serbia” (84%).