Aurélien Fleurot, edited by Mélanie Faure 7:39 a.m., October 18, 2021

The European Central Bank has published a study in which it reveals that France ranks behind some of its European neighbors in terms of wages.

In recent years, deindustrialisation has indeed pulled wages down in France. 

Are the French well paid?

At the European level, the question arises as to where the country is located.

A survey by the European Central Bank reveals that France is lagging behind its neighbors.

If you take the median income map of the euro zone, France indeed ranks ahead of the Italians and Spaniards, but behind Germany, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries.

Deindustrialisation involved

The reason ?

The deindustrialization that pulled wages down.

In Germany, public sector unions have called for a 5% wage increase.

Another example: Japan seems to be moving towards tax exemptions for companies that will increase wages.

Already in 2014, Henri Lachmann, former CEO of Schneider Electric, proved it with figures, by signing the book

How to slow down deindustrialisation?

, published by Choiseul editions: industry represented only 16% of the GDP against 22% in 1998. In Germany, it represented 30% and 22% in the Euro zone. 

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A need for upgrading in services

"What we must take into consideration is that we remain a service economy with also a lot of low wages in services", explained to Europe 1 Christopher Dembik, director at Saxo Bank.

"We know very well, especially in personal care, the need to revalue low wages in services which ultimately replaced the industrial sector. We have had this deindustrialization in recent decades."

To achieve generalized wage increases, we will have to hope for a drop in unemployment in the euro zone.