France, social portrait 2014 Edition
France, Social Portrait is for everyone who would like to learn more about French society. This cross-cutting publication in the “Insee Références” collection gives a broad overview of the social situation in France.
The decline in wage income inequalities paused during the economic crisis
Élise Coudin, Bertrand Marc, Pierre Pora, Lionel Wilner
Between 2007 and 2012, wage income grew by only 0.2% per year in constant euros, compared to 0.6% a year between 2002 and 2007. The slowdown was particularly marked in the private sector; in the public sector, wage income was almost stable before and after the crisis. Since the crisis, in the private sector the gap in wage income between young people and their elders has widened. Conversely, it has narrowed between men and women, and between executives and middle managers. While wage income inequalities declined overall between 2002 and 2007, this was no longer the case between 2007 and 2012. In the lower half of the wage scale, the income gap between people with the lowest wage incomes and those close to the median has increased since the crisis. In the upper half of the scale, the gap continued to narrow slightly. At the top of the scale, the phenomenon of payroll concentration, notable before the crisis, has since stopped.