Equal pay for equal work ?
This is not yet the case today, according to INSEE figures.
The wage income of women, which corresponds to all the wages received during a given year, is 24.4% lower than that of men in 2021. They would receive an average annual income of 18,630 euros against 24,640 euros for women. men.
Several explanations for this result: women tend to hold more part-time jobs and have a lower annual volume of work, around 10.6%, explains the note from the National Institute of Statistics and economic studies.
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For equal working hours, the wage gap between women and men is reduced to 15.5% (full-time equivalent salary - EQTP).
It is executives who encounter the largest wage gap (16.1%) ahead of workers (14.3%), intermediate professions (12.2%) and employees (4.7%).
This inequality tends to increase with age and even the size of the company.
Women over the age of 60, for example, can experience wage gaps of more than 27.5% compared to 4.6% for those under 25.
Companies with more than 5,000 employees record an equivalent time wage difference of 18.4%, which drops to 8.6% for those with less than ten employees.
However, the pay gap for equal working time has improved overall over the years with a reduction of more than 6 points.
In 1995, it was 22.1%.
The difference in volume of work also fell by four points, explained by “
the rise of part-time work
”, notes INSEE.
A phenomenon of “occupational segregation”
For a comparable position and equal working time, the pay gap is reduced to 4.3%.
But the seniority in the company, the level of diploma or the professional experience are not taken into account in the calculation, whereas they are essential elements to define the remuneration of an employee.
Wage inequalities for equivalent working time can be explained by the differences in positions held.
"
Women and men do not exercise the same trades and do not work in the same companies or [...] sectors
" notes INSEE, which describes this phenomenon as "
occupational segregation
".
Women are overrepresented in the professions of secretaries, cashiers, housekeepers and even nurses.
And hierarchical inequalities persist: women represent only 21.9% of the percentage of the highest paid employees in 2021.
However, gender wage disparities remain marked when starting a family (graph above).
At equivalent working time, a father of one child will earn on average 22.9% more than a mother.
This gap widens with the number of children: a father of three toddlers will then receive on average 44.6% more than a mother.
According to INSEE, these differences are mainly explained by a drop in salary after birth for women and “
sustainably slowed careers thereafter
”.
