In 2007, pay was a major source of dissatisfaction among workers. Some 55% of employees in the private sector rate their salary at a level below six out of 10 points. Only 28% of workers consider that their professional experience is fairly rewarded. The gap between actual pay and the salary that would be considered as ‘normal’ is wide: for half of employees, this gap amounts to more than €330 a month. The scale of these ‘normal’ wages is more equitable than actual pay.
First opinion survey on wages
The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, INSEE) carried out the Survey on Professional Activity (enquête activité professionnelle) during the fourth quarter of 2007 among 30,000 employees in the private sector – excluding workers in micro enterprises and executive managers. The survey was conducted by mail, with a high response rate of 64%.
In this survey, workers were asked to rate their job according to four criteria: pay, employment stability, working conditions and working time. Satisfaction with pay was lowest. Moreover, the survey question regarding pay had the lowest rate of non-response. In response to the question ‘Are you satisfied with your wage?’, 34% of employees gave a rating of less than 5 on a 10-point scale, where 10 means ‘very satisfied’. This outcome contrasts notably with the other job criteria evaluated, as displayed in the table below.
Workers' job quality rating (%)
| Job evaluation criteria | 0 to 4 | 5 | 6 to 10 |
| Pay | 34 | 21 | 45 |
| Employment stability | 13 | 14 | 73 |
| Working conditions | 17 | 15 | 68 |
| Working time | 15 | 13 | 72 |
Note: Employees rated each job evaluation criterion on a 10-point scale, where 10 means ‘very satisfied’.
Source: INSEE, Survey on Professional Activity, 2007
The results relating to the four criteria are not independent, but the level of satisfaction with pay has a much lower relation with the three other criteria – the highest correlation is observed between working conditions and working time.
The level of pay satisfaction increases with the actual wage received – 20% of the workers in the lowest income decile rate their satisfaction with pay at a level of six or more, compared with 76% of those in the highest income decile. However, the level of satisfaction depends to a higher degree on the gap (positive or negative) between actual and expected pay – that is, the rate of pay that employees consider that they should get according to their level of qualifications or experience.
Current and ‘fair’ wage
Specific questions in the survey explored employees’ satisfaction with their pay compared with their level of qualification and professional experience. In light of their professional experience, 63% of employees consider that their salary is rather low, while 28% believe that their experience is fairly rewarded. Compared with their level of qualification, 31% of employees felt that their pay level is low. The feeling of being underpaid compared with the level of qualification is mostly expressed by employees with the highest qualifications as well as young workers. The underpayment of experience is expressed by workers at all qualification levels, but increases with the amount of professional experience.
Workers were also asked what they would consider to be a fair salary. Only 1% of employees considered that it would be fair for them to earn less, while 3% considered that their current salary is fair. Overall, 50% of the respondents cited a fair wage level that is 23% higher than their current pay.
The gap between current pay and the salary that would be considered as fair is thus quite wide: for half of employees, this gap amounts to more than €330 a month. The gap widens at the bottom of the pay scale, which means that the scale of fair pay is less extended in terms of range than current pay – in other words, it would be more equitable.
However, the assessment of fair pay is not a simple task. The fair wage is strongly correlated with current pay. Having the same current wage, children of highly qualified workers expect a wage that is higher than the pay of children of low-qualified workers. Regarding gender, except for the most qualified women, the gap between current and fair pay is paradoxically wider for men than women. Thus, it seems that respondents build their assessment of fair pay from social situations that contain various forms of inequalities – which are thus considered as normal.
Reference
Charnoz, P. and Gollac, M., ‘En 2007, le salaire était la première source d’insatisfaction vis-à-vis de l’emploi’, INSEE Première, No. 1270, December 2009.
Anne-Marie Nicot, ANACT