Insee Première · February 2023 · n° 1938

Wages in the private sector in 2021 : Changes still impacted by the health crisis

In 2021, an employee in the private sector earned an average of 2,524 euros net per month in full-time equivalent. As backlash of the strong deceptive increase in 2020 (+3.2% in constant euros) and in a context of rising inflation (+1.6% in 2021), the average net salary in full-time equivalent decreased by 1.3% over one year in constant euros. Since 2019, the last year before the health crisis, it thus increased by 1.9% in constant euros. This increase was largely the result of changes in the composition of employment attributable to the health crisis and, to a lesser extent, of individual salary increases.

If measured not in full-time equivalents but according to the contractual duration of employments, the wages received by employees for their activity decreased by 0.6% between 2019 and 2021 in constant euros. However, this decrease was offset by the compensations paid for short-time working, so that employees' professional incomes increased overall by 1.1% in two years.

Women earned on average 14.8% less than men on a full-time equivalent basis. This gap narrowed by 0.4 points compared to 2020, bringing the decrease since 2008 to 6.1 points.