Very High Salaries: What the Latest INSEE Study Really Reveals
INSEE has just released a rare and thoroughly documented overview of high and very high earners in France, examining both the compensation levels and the career trajectories of those who earn them. The findings, based on data from 2022 and 2023, paint a social reality that is significantly more stable, concentrated, and less fluid than is often assumed: the employees in the “top 1%” did not suddenly appear at the top of the ladder; they were already there fifteen years ago.
According to the study, a private-sector employee is considered to be in the “very high-income” bracket when they earn at least 10,219 euros net per month on a full-time equivalent basis. This applies to only one in every hundred jobs, and the figures become even more striking when looking at the top 0.1 percent: their monthly income exceeds 27,066 euros net, or nearly twenty times the minimum wage. The top 1,000 highest-paid jobs exceed 114,584 euros net per month. The top 100 reach over 312,000 euros net per month. This is a tiny fraction of France, but their salaries alone illustrate the extreme concentration at the very top of the income distribution.
The profile of these employees confirms the group’s extreme homogeneity. Age is a key indicator: the majority are over 50 and have often held strategic positions for a long time. Gender highlights a persistent disparity: only 24% of employees earning more than 10,219 euros net per month are women, even though women account for 42% of full-time equivalent employees in the private sector. Geography also plays a decisive role.
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The vast majority of these very high salaries are concentrated in the Île-de-France region, reflecting the presence of corporate headquarters, executive positions, consulting, finance, and technology. As for the companies in question, they are primarily large, often international organizations in which compensation includes substantial variable components: incentives, bonuses, and performance-based variable pay.
The study’s major revelation, however, lies in the analysis of career trajectories. Nine out of ten employees in the top 1% in 2022 were already, fifteen years earlier, among the top 10% highest-paid in their generation. In other words, reaching very high salaries is only very marginally the result of a meteoric rise or a late career change. Rather, it involves long-term career paths, a gradual accumulation of human capital, responsibilities, and internal or sectoral mobility—often within the same professional environments. The idea of a “summit” accessible to everyone at any time is contradicted by the data: upward mobility does exist, but it is slow and limited.
Paradoxically, INSEE points out that these highly paid employees experience greater annual volatility in their incomes. This instability stems from their reliance on variable compensation, which is characteristic of management and consulting roles. However, this volatility does not call into question their position in the wage hierarchy: a compensation shock may lower their income in a given year, but rarely affects their place on the wage scale.
This picture is also part of a broader trend evident in tax data. Between 2003 and 2022, incomes at the very top rose much faster than those of households as a whole: +119% in current euros, compared with +46%. Their income structure has changed dramatically: wages now account for only 38% of their income—a sharp decline—while investment income—dividends, interest, and capital gains—now accounts for nearly half. This shift underscores the fact that the line between very high wages, high incomes, and high net worth is blurred.
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The study also raises questions about public policy and social organization. The persistent underrepresentation of women at the highest pay levels points to issues of access to leadership roles, the glass ceiling, and career interruptions. The high geographical concentration raises questions about the economic attractiveness of the rest of the country. And the low intergenerational mobility at the top of the pay scale highlights the difficulty of broadening access to the highest levels of pay, even among those with equivalent degrees.
This INSEE publication is not merely a snapshot of the highest salaries. It offers insights into how France’s economic elites are formed, the stability of their established positions, and the actual conditions that do—or do not—enable entry into those ranks. In this respect, it sheds light on both the social and economic debates and highlights a simple reality: the top of the wage pyramid is extremely narrow, stable, and rarely the result of chance.
