2524 euros net. This is the average net monthly salary received by a French employee in 2021 according to INSEE. A slight increase, but it did not compensate for the level of inflation of that year.
It goes up in 2020 during the Covid, it goes down in 2021 with the recovery… This evolution may surprise but the Institute explains it by the evolution of the employment structure, which has been greatly altered during this period.
The jobs temporarily destroyed at the start of the crisis were on average less qualified (young people, short contracts, etc.) and in less paid sectors than the rest. In addition, partial unemployment benefits received by employees during this period are not counted by INSEE because they are not wages.
These two elements had the effect of artificially raising average wage levels in 2020 (higher wages were less affected by partial unemployment that year). And mechanically, with the return of the lowest-paying jobs in 2021, the average has gone down.
If on average an employee in the private sector earned more than 2,500 euros in 2021, the median (half earn more, the other less) is obviously lower.
+141€ from 2018
That year, the average salary was 2,012 euros compared to 2,005 euros in 2020, 1,940 euros in 2019 and 1,871 euros in 2018. Here again, the weak evolution observed by INSEE in 2021 is explained by the same structural phenomenon of employment.
The average net salary is, therefore, 20.3% lower than the average salary, which reflects a greater concentration of salaries in the lower part of the distribution. About 80% of employees have a net monthly salary between the minimum wage (1,258 euros at the end of 2021) and 3,200 euros.
To be part of the 50% of the highest paid private sector employees, it was necessary to earn in France more than 2012 euros net per month in 2021. To enter the top 10, the bar is 4010 euros per month (4033 euros in 2020 ) . The top 1% of French employees earned more than 9,602 euros net.
The wage gap narrowed slightly in 2021, again due to changes in the employment structure. However, over a longer period, the INSEE specifies that it is low wages that have increased a little faster.
Disparities increased slightly in the 2010s, but not enough to reverse the trend observed over the past 25 years.
The same observation with respect to the wage disparities between the sexes. If women earned on average almost 15% less than men in the private sector in 2021, the gap has been reduced by 0.4 points, according to INSEE. Since 2008, the gap, which was then 21.1%, has thus been reduced by 6.1 points in the last 13 years.
Source: BFM TV
