France is one of the European Union countries where the cost of labor is the highest. An INSEE study published on Tuesday confirms how large the gaps remain between sectors, depending on the size of companies and their location. The results of this study concern companies with 10 or more employees and date from 2016.
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On average, at that date, the cost of labor reached 53,271 euros in France, or 34.3 euros per hour. This placed France among the countries within the European Union with the highest hourly costs, behind Luxembourg, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark.
The weight of the frames
Unsurprisingly, financial and insurance activities climb to the top of the podium in terms of labor cost. This cost, which takes into account salary, bonuses, participation but also social contributions, reached in this sector on average 57.90 euros per hour in 2016. The gas production and distribution sector and of electricity (EDF, Engie….) came behind (49.01 euros).
With an almost identical hourly labor cost (45.66 euros and 45.56 euros respectively), "scientific and technical activities", which include in particular legal, accounting, architectural, surveyors, as well as the “information-communication” sector, which includes the IT, publishing, audiovisual and telecoms trades, have risen to third place.
At the bottom of the scale, we find the hotel and restaurant trades, where the hourly labor cost in 2016 was on average 21.75 euros. Then come the administrative services sector (24.89 euros per hour) and commerce (29.56 euros per hour).
How to explain such differences in labor costs? One of the reasons is the preponderant weight of executives in the banking and insurance and "information-communication" sectors. While in the hotel and restaurant and trade sectors, part-time workers, who are generally paid little, are more numerous.
The size of the company and its location
Another big reason is the size of the business. In SMEs with 10 to 49 employees, the average hourly labor cost is 26.89 euros per hour while it is 38.89 euros in those with more than 1000 employees. Clearly, the larger a company, the more management it has, but also the more it has the means to offer profit-sharing, benefits in kind, additional health cover, etc. And it is precisely in banking, insurance or even energy that we find large groups.
Finally, the hourly cost varies depending on the geographic location, remuneration being much higher in the Paris region. " Salaries are indeed higher there, with in particular an over-representation of highly qualified positions (establishment of head offices where executives and managers work) and sectors of activity where the cost of labor is generally high ", specifies the study.