The quinquennate that ends has caused a global increase in the purchasing power of the French, but the inequalities between social classes remain, according to a study of OFCE.
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The agenda was not anticipated so closely, but it gives a particular relief concerning. A few hours from the presentation of the Presidential Program of Emmanuel Macron, which, on Thursday, Mars, which should be a large room for the subjects of purchasing power, a study of the French Observatory of economic conditions (OFCE), a center of Research backed by Sciences Po, which Le Monde could consult, draw up the balance sheet of the five-year in the matter.
“The studies published so far analyzed the effect of fifteen and social measures on households, but regardless of the evolution of the number of people in employment”, explains Xavier Ragot, the President of the ‘OFCE. In other words, without analyzing the link between decline in unemployment and reduction of inequalities. “Gold, the government has made a public policy goal, taking, in the name of employment, measures that have been able to increase income inequalities (unemployment insurance reform, tax exemponization …)” , specifies the economist. “To ensure that work pays” is one of the mantras of the government since the election of the head of state, in 2017.
For this purpose, OFCE relied on employment figures by sector of activity and, by bringing them at the average rate of qualification of each sector, estimated what type of wage – and therefore decile level of living – correspond to the jobs created in the last five years. Economists conclude that, if the rise in the employment rate has benefited the most modest, it has not gummed inequalities.
Between the end of 2017 and end 2021, the French economy created about a million jobs. The most modest 10% French people saw their level of employment doped by 4.7% and their payroll of 3.7% in five years, according to the estimates of the Observatory. Of the earliest 10%, employment increased by 3.1% and the 2.8% payroll. The former have therefore seen their income supported by improving the labor market. But “Employment Creations have in the end that very little distorted the distribution of wages”, summarizes Pierre Madec, economist at OFCE and one of the authors of the study. Clearly, the poorest do not benefit more than the most affluent.
Income from very rich doped
At the same time, the sharp rise in heritage income related to the tax reform of the capital of 2018 (“Flat Tax” and removal of the solidarity tax on fortune) has largely documented the income of the very rich. Although “many measures have benefited from the households in the distribution of living standards,” said the authors, such as the abolition of the housing tax.
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