Farmers, electricians, restaurateurs, hairdressers, pharmacists, lawyers or even artists ... Behind this great diversity of profiles, there is a common point;
they are all independents.
In 2019, this category included more than three million people in metropolitan France according to INSEE, which published a study concerning them on Wednesday January 5.
Their specificity: the absence of an employment contract and a permanent bond of subordination with another individual.
Freedom that comes at a cost.
According to the statistical institute, 40% have activity income declared to the tax administration lower than the annual minimum wage.
For 27%, this figure is even less than half of the minimum wage.
Finally, 18% of the self-employed have a standard of living below the monetary poverty line (below 60% of the median standard of living).
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Certain sectors are more affected than on the other hand by poverty.
The information, arts and entertainment professions are by far the most precarious category.
More than half (50.8%) say they earn less than half of the minimum wage there and 28% are below the poverty line.
Among the other poorly-off socio-professional categories are farmers (25.6% below the poverty line) and artisans (23.6%).
Conversely, groups such as entrepreneurs with 10 or more employees, or the intermediary professions in health and social work seem almost completely spared from these fragile situations (respectively 5.6% and 4.2% under the threshold of poverty).
Over-representation at extremes
Differences also exist depending on family situations.
Once again, single-parent families are more likely to find themselves in a precarious situation than couples.
If this assertion is also true for employees, the gap is less marked.
Among the self-employed, 12% of couples without children live below the poverty line against 34% of single-parent families.
For employees, these proportions fall to 3% and 15% respectively.
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In this context, social benefits represent an important part of the income of the self-employed.
More than half of them receive at least one of the five main social benefits, namely the active solidarity income (RSA), the activity bonus (PA), the disabled adult allowance (AAH), housing allowances (AL) or family benefits (PF).
If they are over-represented among the poorest, the self-employed are also among the wealthiest.
25% belong to the richest 10% of the population, against only 12% of wage earners.
