Informations Rapides · 25 March 2021 · n° 080

In 2019, the average net wage in the civil service was stable in real terms Wages in the public - year 2019

In the whole civil services, all status combined (but without military, nursery and family assistants, hospital interns and externs and apprentices), the average net wage in full-time equivalent (FTE) was 2,320 euros in 2019. It increased by 1.1% in nominal terms between 2018 and 2019 (after +0.8% between 2017 and 2018). This increase reflects on the one hand individual wage progressions and on the other hand job structure changes in the civil service, as a result of promotions, retirements and recruitments. The number of subsidised contracts beneficiaries, with lower wages on average than those of other civil agents, continued to decline in 2019. The increase in average net wage in real terms also stems from the resumption of the application of the protocol on the career and remuneration in the public service for civil servants and from exemption from employee’s social security contributions on compensated overtime work hours for concerned public services agents.

The average gross wage increased by 1.1% in nominal terms in 2019 after +2.0% in 2018. It varied at the same pace as the average net wage in 2019, the effect of the increase in the pension contribution rate for civil servants (+0.3 points in 2019) in compliance with the 2010 pension reform being broadly compensated by the exemption from employee’s social security contributions on compensated overtime work hours.

Corrected for the prices increase (+1.1% after +1.8%), the average net wage in FTE in civil service was stable in 2019 in real terms, at 2 320 per month. It decreased by 1.0% in 2018.

In the State civil service (SCS), within ministries or national public institutions, the average net wage in FTE was stable in real terms in 2019, at 2,600 euros per month. In the local civil service (LCS), it increased by 0.4% in real terms, at 1,990 euros per month. In the hospital civil service (HCS), which includes staff of hospitals and medico-social institutions, it diminished by 0.8% in real terms, at 2,310 euros per month.

Gaps in wage levels between the three civil services result mainly from different structures in terms of category, status and types of jobs held. Indeed, about six state civil servants in ten belong to category A, for only one in three of HCS agents, and one in ten agents in the LCS. In contrast, three in four local civil servants and half of hospital civil servants belong to category C, against one in five in the SCS.

Staff tunrover tends to lower the average wage because the entering generations are less paid than those who retired (« noria effect »). The weaker dynamic in 2019 of wages in the FPH compared to the other two aspects is partly explained by the fact that this effect is much more marked: the difference in average wages between “entrants” and “outgoing” weighs for −1.1 points in the evolution of the average salary of civil agents in the HCS, against −0.7 points in the SCS and −0.5 points in the LCS. Beyond this effect, the average remuneration of workers in place (RMPP) which measures the average variations in the wages of civil agents present for two consecutive years is lower in the HCS than in the SCS and the LCS.

The ARWP reflects career effect related to seniority and individual events such as compensated overtime work hours, time-saving account buybacks, back pays, work stoppages, etc. This indicator has a scope which excludes entries and exits and is limited to the agents present for two complete and consecutive years with the same employer and the same work quotity. It covers near two-thirds of the civils servants, taking into account the importance of labour flows (entries into the civil service, exits, changes of employer) and changes in working quotity.

In 2019, in the civil service, the net ARWP increased by 1,1% in real terms after being virtually stable in 2018 (–0.1%). It rose more strongly in the SCS (+1.5%) and in the LCS (+1.2%) than in the HCS (+0,4%).

Compared to Insee Première publications n°1810, n°1812 and n°1819 relating to wages in each of the three civil services in 2018, only the variation in real terms of the average net wage in the LCS between 2017 and 2018 was slightly revised (by 0,1 points upwards).