THE region’s workers have unrealistic expectations of what they should be earning, a survey claims, with the gap between hoped-for and actual pay growing as they get older.

Jobs website Totaljobs said the gap was as much as 79 per cent in some cases.

In the North-East 59 per cent expected to earn £50,000 by the age of 40, whereas the average 40 to 49 year old only earns £33,509.

An even higher 69 per cent of respondents said they expected to earn £60,000 by the age of 50, whereas the average 50-59 year old actually earns £31,624.

A similar picture also emerged among people who were quizzed in Yorkshire for the survey.

About a third of people also believed friends and their own colleagues were on better salaries.

Totaljobs said many workers were facing what it called “financial deflation” as a result of unrealistic expectations over their earnings potential.

It said the danger was that they became further de-motivated if they believed they weren’t progressing as much as they would like.

David Clift, human resources director at totaljobs, said: “It is important for employees to be aware of what is realistic pay-wise so that their goals are achievable.”