“Do we live on 980 euros a month?”
Emmanuel Macron was indignant during the last presidential campaign about retirees receiving a low pension.
Faced with this observation, as promised, the pension reform, which must be unveiled this Tuesday, January 10 by Élisabeth Borne, should include a revaluation of the minimum pension.
The new floor would go from 75% of the minimum wage today to 85%, to reach around 1,200 euros per month.
To discover
Pension reform: the answers to all your questions
The Government has not yet decided whether this measure will concern all retirees or only new beneficiaries.
It must be said that the situations of retirees differ greatly.
The pensions received at the end of the month by the main interested parties also vary, for example according to gender, career, and some actually find themselves with less than 1000 euros, as indicated by the Head of State.
Pending the final arbitrations, Le
Figaro
takes stock of the subject.
Read alsoAt what age do the French really retire?
According to DRESS data, at the end of 2020 the average direct pension (pension increase for three or more children included) of pensioners resident in France amounted to 1,400 euros net of social security contributions.
While this amount has increased in current euros between 2015 and 2020, it has decreased in constant euros by 0.7%.
In question, a revaluation of pensions lower, on average, than inflation: the measures of freezing or under-indexation of pensions taken by certain schemes have eroded the standard of living of retirees over the period.
Between 2015 and 2020, pensions were increased by 1.7% on average, all schemes combined, for an inflation level of 4.8%, a difference of 3.1 points.
In addition, the DREES underlines the
noria effect
: in other words, new retirees, benefiting from pensions on average higher than their elders, mechanically influence the average level of pensions, partially offsetting this under-indexation.
But, as noted by the statistical service of the Ministry of Health, this effect tends to be attenuated, in particular for retired civil servants.
Pension gaps, a mirror of professional inequalities
Beyond this general observation, differences emerge between the regimes and the sexes, reflecting “
in part the inequalities in professional careers
”.
The leading group of higher pensions brings together retirees whose main affiliation scheme is the liberal professions, state civil service and special schemes.
Conversely, the lowest pensions essentially concern agricultural pensions (particularly those of self-employed workers), affiliated to the Mutualité sociale agricole.
The proportion of managers and qualified people, on average higher among the liberal professions and in the civil service, explains these differences between sectors of activity.
The DREES also notes geographical differences: thus, pensions are much higher than the national average in the Ile-de-France departments, where the proportion of executives is higher.
Conversely, the average amount is lower "
in the north and north-east of France, as well as in the Massif Central
" and the Overseas Territories.
Women are still the big losers in the pension system.
Nearly half of them receive a small pension, corresponding to the threshold of 1,000 euros gross monthly pension, when this share is 20% for men.
This precariousness is partly explained by the persistent wage inequalities between men and women, but also by career interruptions, which are more frequent among women and heavily penalized in the current system.
Women's direct pensions are thus 40% lower than those of men.
If the gap tends to reduce over the years, it is still 30% for new retirees who left in 2020, according to figures from the DRESS.
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Among these modest retirees, nearly 40% benefited at the end of 2016 from a minimum pension or “
contributory minimum
” (642.93 euros per month for a full career in the scheme in 2020).
The tightening of the conditions for granting these minima, which took place in 2012, led to a drop in beneficiaries among the youngest retirees.
Thus, under the general scheme, the minimum contributory only concerns one in five pensions (20%) in 2019.
