Women earned on average almost 15% less than men in the private sector in 2021, but the gap is narrowing, according to an INSEE study published Thursday. In a context of inflation (+1.6%) in 2021, the statistics institute shows that the average net salary of women in the private sector has decreased by 1%, after a rise of 3.8% in 2020 classified as “trompe-l’oeil” “due to the health crisis that took partially unemployed employees off the count.
At the same time, men’s wages fell by 1.5% after +2.9% in 2020. INSEE points out that the gap between women and men “continues to narrow in 2021”, bringing it to a reduction of 6, 1 points since 2008.
Women make up just 22% of the top 1% of wage earners
The pay gap reflects “an underrepresentation of women at the top of the pay distribution”, where they make up just 21.9% of the top 1% of highest-paid employees, versus 41.5% of all private sector employees “. This gap reflects “the effect of professional segregation and the inequalities that accompany it: the structure of jobs by activity sector, company size, age, socio-professional category and employment condition is not the same for women and for men”, explains INSEE.
When the positions are comparable (identical profession within the same establishment), the average salary gap between women and men is reduced to 4.3% in the private sector in 2021, underlines the study.
Source: BFM TV
