The new ‘dream salary’ is £37,000 per year according to findings from the Alliance & Leicester and money is never far from our thoughts says the report.

Half of the 2,000 respondents (50%) admit to thinking about money at least once a day with the major earners (£60,000) and above most focused upon it.

Workers said they would welcome more cash but were modest in their desires.

When asked what salary they wanted the respondents cited £37,000 a year as the magic number. This equates to an additional £1,000 a month ontop of the average £25,000 per annum wage.

Alliance & Leicester’s Simon Ripton said: “Although just 2% of us feel that we earn enough to be able to do everything we want, as a nation we have realistic expectations of how much more money we would like to earn to make our lives easier.

“We certainly don’t have any lavish dreams of millionaire salaries and as such, after working hard all month, should ensure that the money we do earn works as hard as possible for us.”

Workers admitted to keeping a hawkish eye on pay with 65% saying they check that salaries reach their account at each pay period.