Insee Première · October 2025 · n° 2079

Wages in the private sector in 2024 With inflation falling, the purchasing power of wages rose anew

In 2024, a private sector employee earned an average of 2,733 euros net per month in full‑time equivalent (FTE) terms. With inflation falling in 2024 (+2.0%, after +4.9% in 2023), the average net wage rebounded in constant euros: +0.8%, after -1.0% in 2023.

Half of all private sector employees earned less than 2,190 eurosnet per month in FTE terms. One out of ten employees earned less than 1,492 euros, while one out of ten earned more than 4,334 euros. In 2024, wages rose evenly across the entire pay scale, unlike in the two preceding years, when increases in the minimum wage preserved the purchasing power of those at the bottom of the distribution while inflation eroded that of higher wages. In this context, wage inequalities stabilised in 2024, after three consecutive years of decline.

On average in 2024, women earned 13.0% less than men on a FTE basis. This gap narrowed by 0.3 points compared to the previous year.