Women earned on average nearly 15% less than men in the private sector in 2021, but the gap is narrowing, according to an INSEE study published Thursday.
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In a context of inflation (+1.6%) in 2021, the statistical institute shows that the average net salary of women in the private sector has decreased by 1%, after a rise of 3.8% in 2020 qualified as "
trompe-l'oeil
"due to the health crisis which took out of the calculations the employees on partial unemployment.
At the same time, men's wages fell by 1.5% after +2.9% in 2020. INSEE notes that the gap between women and men "
continues to narrow in 2021
", bringing it to 6, 1 point reduction since 2008.
The fact remains that in 2021, “
women earn on average 14.8% less than men in full-time equivalent
”.
The pay gap reflects "
an under-representation of women at the top of the wage distribution
", where they represent only 21.9% of the 1% of the best paid employees, against 41.5% of all employees. private employees.
Read alsoWage increases remain below inflation
This gap reflects 'the effect of professional segregation and the inequalities that accompany it: the structure of jobs by sector of activity, company size, age, socio-professional category and employment condition is, for example, not the even for women and for men", explains INSEE. When the positions are comparable (identical profession within the same establishment), the average salary gap between women and men is reduced to 4.3 % in the private sector in 2021, underlines the study.