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Prostitutes working legally in Australian brothels are just as happy as women with regular day jobs, a survey showed Thursday.

A file photo of The Daily Planet brothel in Melbourne
© AFP/Daily Planet/HO/File

But women who sell sex illegally in their homes or on the streets are far less happy, according to the survey by Queensland University of Technology researcher Charlotte Seib.

The study compared the mental and physical health of nearly 250 prostitutes, aged 18 to 57.

Legal workers reported similar job satisfaction to women in the general community, the national AAP news agency quoted the survey as showing.

"The general picture is that those women whose families know about their work reported greater job satisfaction than those who kept their work secret," said Seib.

Eighty-two percent of the women said they took up prostitution for the money, while 52 per cent pointed to the flexible working hours.

"And 39 percent said they had a particular goal in mind such as a new car, a house or a holiday," said Seib.

One in four of the women surveyed had a university degree, contrary to the stereotype that sex workers came from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.

Legal prostitutes were psychologically on a par with other women but street workers were far less stable, said Seib.

About half said they had been raped or assaulted by a client in the past year, compared to just three percent of brothel workers, she noted, indicating that legalisation of the industry had been effective.

©AFP

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