New figures from INSEE published in June 2021 reveal that in 2019, women earned on average 16% less than men in the private sector.
The numbers hurt. In France, in 2019, a woman earned on average 16% less than a man. The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) unveiled a study on wages in the private sector on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. It emerges that, overall, the average salary of an employee in the private sector is 2,424 euros net per month (but one in two employees receives a net salary of less than 1,940 euros net). This average salary is certainly up 1.2% compared to 2018 but above all it covers a very different reality depending on the gender of the employee. Indeed, INSEE stresses that women still earn on average 16% less than men.
Much less women among the top earners
On average, men in the private sector earn 2,587 euros net for men, against 2,181 euros for women. The figures are even more eloquent when we dig below the surface: behind this 16% gap, INSEE reveals that only 20.5% of the 1% of the best paid employees are women, against 41.6% of the all employees in the private sector. On the other hand, on low wages, the wage gap is smaller. On the first 99 hundredths of the distribution, it is 12%, therefore significantly lower than the average deviation (16%).
A gender pay gap that is narrowing … very slowly
Despite these strong disparities, INSEE nevertheless stresses that the gap is gradually narrowing, even if the trend is very slow. Gender pay inequalities fell by 0.8 points between 2018 and 2019. The Institute also indicates that the average pay gap between women and men has been decreasing steadily since 2008 (-4.9 points between 2008 and 2019).
INSEE specifies in his study than “As in previous years, the reduction in the gap in 2019 is mainly due to the increase in the proportion of women among executives (36.2% of women in 2019, after 35.8% in 2018), a category on average the better paid. ” And to add that: “the average net salary of female executives increased in 2019 (+ 0.5% in constant euros), while that of male executives decreased (- 1.2%).”
As a reminder, Law Law n ° 2018-771 of September 5, 2018, known as the law for the freedom to choose one’s professional future, includes a chapter entitled “Equal remuneration between women and men and the fight against sexual violence and sexist at work “. It aims in particular to impose an obligation of result in terms of equal pay between women and men. If not, then a financial penalty may be applied to the business. However, nearly fifty years after the law of December 22, 1972, which introduced the principle “for equal work, equal pay”, the way to go still seems long … Interminable, even.
Florence santrot
Florence Santrot is the editor of aufeminin. Its mission: to support journalists in the production of relevant content on the site and social networks. Other than that, she …