Inequalities "remain gaping" in France between the working classes and the wealthy, in terms of income but also wealth, educational success and even health, says the Observatory of inequalities in a report published on Thursday.
In recent years, the public debate has mainly focused on inequalities related to skin color, age or gender, to the point that the analysis "in terms of social positions" may have seemed "disqualified", lamented Louis Maurin, one of the two authors of this report, denouncing on this point a "widespread hypocrisy in different political camps".
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However, not only are managers paid much more than blue-collar and white-collar workers – the richest 10% earn almost three times more than the poorest 10% – but they are also much less affected by job insecurity and poor housing. They also suffer less from certain health problems, to the point that a manager "can count on six more years of life" compared to a worker, details the report.
"What is shocking is the gap between the public discourse on equal opportunities and reality," said Louis Maurin, director of the Observatory of Inequality, an independent body that draws up every two years an inventory of inequalities in France.
School "does not reduce enough" inequalities
In addition, the "social divide" is clearly felt in schools, which certainly "does not increase inequalities", but "does not reduce them enough". Taken as a whole, the French population is increasingly educated, but in this area the gaps between social classes are not decreasing, stressed the other author of the report, Anne Brunner. Thus, between 2010 and 2020, the share of children of blue-collar or white-collar workers who obtained a bac + 5 level diploma doubled, from 6 to 13%, but that of the children of managers and intermediate professions too, from 22 to 40%.
The Report on Inequalities in France, 2023 edition has just been released!
160 pages, 100 tables and graphs, a special report on the socialehttps://t.co/SmEgg4ocdf fracture
— Observatory of inequalities (@Obs_ineg) June 8, 2023
Despite the decline of the working class for at least 30 years, differences between social classes "remain a powerful driver of fracking" and therefore tensions in society, insist the authors of the report. They therefore call for a debate on a fairer redistribution of wealth, but without focusing on a "handful of hyper-rich", because in this case "nothing will have been settled at all", according to them.
