#EMPLOYMENT & SOCIETY
In 2024, the average net wage in France's private sector barely regained its 2019 level in constant euros. Between 1996 and 2019 it gained 0.6% of purchasing power a year.
Published on August 25, 2026 · to be rechecked on October 1, 2027
Insee measures the average full-time-equivalent (FTE) net wage in the private sector every year, expressed in constant euros to strip out inflation. In 2024 it stands at 2,733 euros net per month and gains 0.8% in purchasing power, after −1.3% in 2022 and −1.0% in 2023. Insee notes that this rebound "barely brings it back to the 2019 level in constant euros", whereas wage purchasing power had risen by 0.6% a year on average between 1996 and 2019. Dares, which tracks a different indicator — base monthly pay, excluding bonuses, from a separate survey — records the same sequence: a fall of 1.3% to 3% in constant euros in 2022 depending on occupational category, followed by a recovery in 2024.
Do wages keep up with inflation in France?
Over the long run they slightly outpace it: +0.6% a year on average from 1996 to 2019. But between 2019 and 2024, the average real net private-sector wage gained nothing.
In other words: five years of pay rises went into catching up with inflation, not into purchasing power.
Four caveats, because they matter
- It is an average, and it hides gaps: in 2024, purchasing power rose 0.9% in the bottom decile against 0.1% for managers.
- The scope of the 2024 study changed (apprentices, interns and Mayotte are now included): Insee states its levels are not directly comparable with earlier publications.
- The average wage is not the typical wage: in 2024, half of private-sector employees earn less than 2,190 euros net per month on an FTE basis.
- Insee measures FTE net pay, Dares measures base pay excluding bonuses. The two indicators do not overlap, but they describe the same 2022-2024 sequence.
Why it still matters: the question is not whether wages rose — they were up 2.8% in current euros in 2024 — but whether they rose faster than prices. Over five years, they did not.
For you
- Has your pay risen faster than prices since 2019?
- Did you know it took five years of nominal increases just to get back to the starting point?
Source: Insee Première No. 2079, "Wages in the private sector in 2024", October 2025; Dares, "Evolution of base wages in the private sector".
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