Forgotten, the fear of unemployment, the application letters remaining unanswered, the extended internships paid by a slingshot… At least, for the most advantaged young people. Due to the shortage of qualified personnel, new graduates can raise their standards, and this particularly applies to salaries. This is evidenced by the 2023 survey by the human capital division of the WTW group, conducted among 12,300 young bac + 2 to bac + 5 graduates for less than two years and working in a panel of sixty-three large companies.
The median gross annual salary of the most advantaged, namely bac + 5 all sectors combined, increased by 7%, to 42,000 euros this year. “This is more than expected inflation (+5.8%, according to INSEE) and than what all executives received (+4.1%). Young graduates therefore see their real purchasing power increase despite inflation”notes Radia Rafil, senior compensation and benefits consultant at WTW.
Some sectors even offer increases higher than this 7% average. Recruited by an American IT giant for a sales position in 2021 at the end of her work-study period, Louise (all first names have been changed) does not regret her choice at all: this young graduate of a training school Commerce has seen its gross fixed salary increase by 20% in two years, to approach 60,000 euros, not counting the variable. “We are autonomous and well paid, but we have to provide results”summarizes the young woman, who is also regularly contacted by recruitment firms.
Skills shortage
Same scenario for Violette, an engineer who began her career in 2022 in consulting: the missions “not technical enough” did not excite her, which led her to ask, to the great astonishment of her employer, for an extension of her trial period. This is in order to be able to leave without notice: “I quickly found the position that suited me at Société Générale. The bank offered me +30% compared to my previous job, which is more than what I had asked for during the job interview. »
In addition to the sector of activity and the profession, the ranking of the school continues to influence remuneration. The WTW survey notes a 13% gap, or 5,000 euros per year, between a young graduate from a top-tier (43,000 euros) or third-tier (38,000 euros) business school. But the differences tend to collapse towards the bottom of the ranking, whether engineering or business schools, “because it is easier to justify a gap between the leading formations and the rest of the peloton”explains Radia Rafil.
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