Rich like a Frenchman who earns 3,470 euros

The Observatory of Inequalities engaged in a politically sensitive and economically delicate exercise. In his report on the wealthy in France, published Tuesday, June 9, he proposed, for the first time, a wealth threshold, which the authors of this study set at 3,470 euros per month, after tax, for a person without dependent child.

An "entry ticket" to the privileged club which corresponds to twice the median income in France, or 1,735 euros (according to 2017 data). "There are several methods to assess who is rich. The one we prefer is to say that a rich person earns significantly more than the average, and people above our threshold have incomes at least twice as high as those of the national average ", specifies Anne Brunner, one of the co-authors of the report, contacted by France 24.

5.5 million rich in France

With this new indicator, 5.5 million French people can be considered wealthy, or 8.2% of the total population. "Surprisingly, the rich are as numerous as the poor", since 8% of the population lives on less than 867 euros per month, which corresponds to half of the median income, note the authors of this study.

A number of "privileged" who may seem high in this period of economic uncertainty, where many are those who have the impression of seeing their standard of living deteriorate. "It is certain that for a certain number of people, in particular in Paris, this threshold of 3,470 euros may seem low, because, for example, it does not make it possible to buy a comfortable apartment in the capital. But it seems to us undeniable that when one is part of this 8%, one belongs to the category of the rich, even if one does not feel easy ", underlines Anne Brunner. Such an indicator makes it possible, in particular, to put its economic situation into perspective.

But it does not take into account the heritage which, for some, is the true sign of wealth. Not so quickly, respond the authors of the study, a whole part of which is devoted to this question. They thus propose a separate wealth threshold in terms of heritage, established at 490,000 euros, or three times the median gross heritage. If it is possible to provide two thresholds, "we must nevertheless stop opposing them, because we have found that it is often the same ones that are found in both categories," says Anne Brunner.

50, owner, couple and childless

These "rich" are in 70% of the cases of fifties. First, because career paths start later today and we reach the top of the salary scale at an older age than a few decades ago, and also because with the lengthening of the duration of life, the inheritance only comes when one is in the prime of life. These well-to-do French people also often live in a couple, without children and mainly in Île-de-France where they have accommodation. French oddity noted in this report: 2% of these wealthy occupy social housing that they rent. "Obviously, the HLM offices keep people who no longer have a reason to be there," note the study's authors.

Find all of this in our richeshttps report: //t.co/85kKhsrnai pic.twitter.com/nEqOUrAvZj

But this portrait-robot corresponds only to the common of the rich. The very closed circle of the richest 1% of the population constitutes a "caste" apart, made up of big bosses, football stars and other tenors of finance. To enter this very select club, you have to earn at least 6,850 euros net per month, after taxes: which makes the super-rich French the richest in Europe, just behind Switzerland. Thus, to be part of the 1% of Germans who earn the most, you have to touch at least 6,500 euros and "only" 6,000 euros in the United Kingdom. This shows that "if France is egalitarian from the bottom, that is to say that it succeeds in containing poverty, it remains very unequal at the top of the income pyramid", notes Anne Brunner.

Is the rich the other ?

Drawing up this robot portrait of the rich Frenchman was not an easy task. "There is a lack of definition to understand who the wealthy are," said the report. Wealth remains the poor relation of income distribution studies. "There have been pioneers, such as the sociologists Michel Pinçon and Monique Pinçon-Charlot, who investigated the ghettos of the wealthy in the 1990s or, more recently, Thomas Piketty who advanced knowledge on this subject. But the information is clearly insufficient, "said Anne Brunner. 

According to her, this modesty in examining the rich under the microscope comes in part from the fact that it is not really a question of public policy, as the fight against poverty can be. The authorities are therefore less demanding of precise data on this subject. In addition, the creed "live happy, live hidden" of the wealthiest makes access to precise data more complicated.

However, "if we want to draw up a complete inventory of French society, we must also document the top of the social ladder," says Anne Brunner. It is also, according to her, a matter of burning political topicality, in this period of frantic public spending to lessen the economic shock engendered by the epidemic of Covid-19. "The problem of financing these measures and paying down the debt arises, and we often hear it said that the rich will have to contribute. That's good, but we still need to know who we are talking about," summarizes the co-author of the report.

In this regard, this study of the wealthy seeks to spark debate. Indeed, in the absence of a wealth threshold accepted by all, the temptation will always be great to want to make the weight of solidarity bear more wealthy than yourself. This vagueness also allows politicians to give gifts to the wealthy without seeming to. Thus, "the current draft bill on the contribution of the wealthy which proposes a very high threshold of 250,000 euros per year is, in fact, a way of exempting the wealthy classes", underlines Louis Maurin, director of the Inequalities observatory, interviewed by Le Monde. In other words, well-ordered solidarity begins with a clear definition of who is rich.

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