In 2019, the pay gap between workers in so-called “second line” jobs and all private sector employees was 30% (1,634 euros, compared to 2,337 euros). Defined in parallel with the “front line” professions during the Covid-19 pandemic (health, army, police, firefighters), those on the second line were just as necessary for the continuity of economic and social life in France, but they sometimes seemed to be “invisible”.
This lack of recognition is illustrated by difficult working conditions and insufficient salaries, as highlighted by the research work carried out for the scientific mediation project “What do we know about work? » from the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for the Evaluation of Public Policies (Liepp), distributed in collaboration with the Liepp and the Presses de Sciences Po on the Emploi channel of Lemonde.fr.
The work of the economist Christine Erhel reports a discrepancy between the social utility of these professions and their low remuneration (among other parameters).
It was following the pandemic that the limits of this vast category were able to be defined, in particular within the framework of the mission to support the social partners in the process of recognizing “second line” workers. The latter concerns, in fact, seventeen families of trades, which have 4.6 million employees in 2019 in the private sector, who were exposed to contamination due to their working conditions and their presence on site during the first containment. These are workers in agriculture and agri-food, commerce, security, cleanliness, transport and even construction.
Home help, the most precarious
The researcher highlights three main difficulties concerning all of these professions: employees experience precarious employment conditions (high rates of fixed-term and temporary contracts) and low wages; they encounter more difficult working conditions (twice as many workplace accidents, exposure to chemicals); finally, they are faced with significant time constraints (part-time work, more frequent work at night or on Sundays).
In addition, the share of low salaries (less than 1,246 euros net in 2019) is higher in second-line professions than in the private sector as a whole (18.0%, compared to 11.9%). Among home helps, by far the most precarious profession, the share of low wages is 43.5%!
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