Anyone earning less than 1008 euros in France is considered poor
In December, the European statistical office (Eurostat) compared the earnings of the 10% highest-paid and 10% lowest-paid workers in all EU countries. According to RFI, France ranked 5th among 28 EU countries: the gap between the highest and lowest salaries is 2.7 times. The best situation is in Sweden (2.1), followed by Belgium, Denmark, and Finland (2.4 each).
There is another measurement method used by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). The institute compares the earnings of the 20% highest-paid and 20% lowest-paid workers in France – and here the gap increases to 4.5 times.
Well, the income of a French person earning the minimum wage differs from the average monthly income of the heads of the 40 largest companies in the country (CAC 40) by 240 times. That is, the 'boss' of a French corporation earns in a month what an ordinary French person earns in 20 years. And this is one of the serious factors of discontent among many French citizens who say that life was better before. At least – fairer, because in the 1970s, as reported by Le Monde, the gap between the minimum wage and the 'boss's' earnings was only 12-fold.
Eurostat also counted the number of people receiving low wages. A 'low' wage is defined as one that is at least 1/3 below the 'median' wage. The 'median' wage (not to be confused with the average) is calculated by dividing workers into two groups: the sought amount is in the middle of a conditional graph, on either side of which are 50% of the highest wages and 50% of the lowest. In France, for example, the median wage is about 1380 euros 'net'.
So, 1 in 12 French workers (or 8.8%) receives a 'low wage'. This is almost twice as good as the European average (17.2%), but worse than in Sweden (2.6%), Belgium (3.8%), and Finland (5.3%).
However, looking at two other European countries comparable to France in economic power and size, the French can be happy. Because, for example, in the UK and Germany, almost every fourth worker receives a 'bad wage' (21.3% and 22.5% respectively).
Two days ago, the French Ministry of Labor announced that the minimum wage in the country will increase by 0.93% from January 1, 2017, and will now be 1480 euros 'gross' (or 1153 euros 'net' – already after social contributions). Slightly more – in Germany (1493 euros), Belgium (1502), the Netherlands (1508), and Ireland (1546), much more – in Luxembourg (1923 euros). And the lowest minimum wage is in Bulgaria: 215 euros. This is much less than in other European laggards – Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, where minimum wages hover around 350 euros.
Against this background, it is worth noting that in France the poverty threshold is at 1008 euros: that is, if you earn less than that per month, you are poor. According to data published in December, in 2015, 8 million 800 thousand people (or 14.3% of the total population) were considered poor in France.
However, one must make allowances for the high demands of the French. As noted by the French Center for Monitoring Social Inequality, in 1970, the amount by which the 'poverty threshold' is measured today was the average 'median wage'. That is, today's poor person in the 70s was quite a solid middle-class person.
Meanwhile, the 70s are considered the 'fattest' years in France. Today, for example, the newspaper Le Monde came out with the headline: 'Happy as a Frenchman under Pompidou.' Pompidou was President of France from 1969 to 1974. It should not be forgotten that under him the country had almost zero unemployment, while today France has almost 3.7 million unemployed.