do you earn more than half of the French?

2012 euros net per month: if you earn more, you are among the top 50% of French employees in the country. To climb into the very closed club of the richest 1% of employees, you have to earn more than 9602 euros per month. An amount equivalent to 8 times the minimum wage but down from… 36 euros.

Do you earn more than your neighbor? A not so obvious question to solve but that everyone can ask themselves one day. Waiting for, if you are a private employee, THE INSEE data (1) make it possible to situate his net salary in relation to that of the French. Thus in 2021, a full-time private sector employee earns on average 2524 euros net per month. As always, the average – driven by the highest salaries – is very clearly above the median salarylocate him 2012 euros net per month. Clearly: 50% of private sector employees earn more than 2012 euros, and therefore 50% earn less.

Salary, pension… With what income per month are you rich?

The average salary, in the private sector, is increase of 6 euros over one yearin 2021. But be careful, this average is down 1.3% over one year in constant euros, in a period marked by a high level of inflation. This means that even if salaries go up… your purchasing power with this salary decreases, because it does not rise as fast as inflation. And again, the INSEE study applies to wages for the year 2021. The delta between wage growth and inflation is likely to be even greater in 2022: the rise in prices was 1.6% in 2021 , compared to 5.2% in 2022.

Salary and inflation: who are the losers?

While in 2020 the average full-time net salary increased for all socio-professional categories, in 2021 it fell for all: -0.7% for employees -1.8% for managers [en euros constants, donc en prenant en compte l’inflation, NDLR]. The more pronounced drop in the average salary of executives in 2021 is partly explained by the return of those whose activity was suspended during the crisis, in some of the least remunerative sectors, such as catering or creative, artistic and show, writes Insee.

80% of employees earn between the Smic and 3200euros net

In detail, the average monthly net salary is 2778 euros in industryof 2269 euros in construction and of 2496 euros in the tertiary sector. It is higher in sectors where executives are overrepresented, such as financial services (3779 euros) or information and communication (3635 euros). the opposite, it is lower in accommodation and catering (1,811 euros), which concentrates a high proportion of employees.

As often, averages are misleading: as explained above, half of private sector employees receive less than 2012 euros net per month, or 20.3% less than the average salary. About 80% of employees have a net monthly income between the Smic (1258 euros at the end of 2021) and 3200 euros. At the ends of the distribution, one employee in ten earns less than 1,366 euros net per month wheras’one in ten receives more than 4010 euros, down 23 euros. Finally, one employee out of a hundred earns more than 9,602 euros net, or almost 8 times the minimum wage.

Last figure put forward by the institute: women earn on average 14.8% less than men. A gap that tends to be painfully reduced.

(1) Wages in the private sector in 2021, number 1938, published on 02/16/2023