The private sector will see a clear decline in the purchasing power of net wages in 2022, according to INSEE.

In 2022, the average net salary in constant euros of private sector workers fell by 1%, the “strongest” decline seen in the last 25 years, excluding dummies during the health crisis, INSEE said in a study published on Wednesday. .

“In 2022, a private sector worker earns on average €2,630 net per month in full-time equivalent employment (EQTP),” the institute points out.

In current euros (i.e. excluding inflation), wages in 2022 “increased significantly”: +4.2% net. But “consumer prices rose more sharply (+5.2% after +1.6% in 2021), so that the average net salary in constant euros decreased by 1.0%,” INSEE continues.

“Excluding the decline in 2021” (-1.3%) caused “largely by changes in the composition of employment during the health crisis,” “the fall in the purchasing power of net EQTP wages in 2022 would be the steepest since 1996.” , a year since INSEE measures this indicator,” the study continues.

Women are overrepresented in low wages

“By raising the minimum wage in line with inflation, only the purchasing power of the lowest wages was preserved,” INSEE emphasizes.

In 2022, “half of private sector employees will receive less than €2,091 net per month under the EQTP,” the study also notes. “This median net salary is 20.5% lower than the average salary, reflecting the greater concentration of salaries at the bottom of the distribution.”

Additionally, women, overrepresented at the bottom of the wage distribution, earn “on average 14.1% less than men in the EQTP,” a gap that “has narrowed by 0.7 points from 2021 and by 6. 8 points since 2008.”