Monthly income 2007: €9,319
Monthly income 2013: €8,201

Sam is married, in his early 60s and lives in the Dublin suburbs with his wife Rachel.

Sam is a senior executive at a graphic design company which employs 50 staff.

He has three children who are attending university. Sam’s annual salary as an executive director over the last number of years was €175,000.

He has looked at the impact successive Budgets have had on his income and found that his “net” monthly income for 2007 was €9,319 but this has reduced to €8,201 in 2013.

This represents a net monthly income drop of €1,118 since the start of the austerity budgets in 2007.