What share do women occupy among employees paid the minimum wage? While speaking about the increase in this planned in the program of the New Popular Front in an interview on LCI on Wednesday evening, Jean-Luc Mélenchon declared: “80% of minimum wage workers are women. In other words, the minimum wage is the salary of women in this country. »
He had already announced this figure previously, such as on Sunday June 23 during a meeting in Montpellier. Two years ago, the leader of La France insoumise nevertheless announced the figure of 60% women among people paid the minimum wage. What share do women represent among minimum wage earners? 20 Minutes make the point.
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Although women are overrepresented among employees paid the minimum wage, they do not represent 80%, but rather between 55 and 60%. According to figures from the Directorate for Research, Studies and Statistics (Dares) of the Ministry of Labor, among the beneficiaries of the revaluation of the minimum wage in January 2023, 57.3% were women. This figure was 59.3% in 2021, and 55.3% in 2022, again according to Dares.
80% of part-time workers are women
In a document dating from 2016 on private sector jobs paid on the basis of the minimum wage, Dares provided several explanations: “Working more often in market services than in industrial or construction activities, women work more part-time (30.2% of them, compared to only 8.3% of men) and less often hold permanent jobs (93.1% of them, compared to 95.3% of men). » According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) from 2016, women represent 80% of part-time employees.
In addition, and despite an overall higher level of training, women more often occupy less qualified jobs than men. The Ministry of Labor indicated in 2016 that “women are more than twice as affected by the minimum wage as men: 12.7% compared to 5.5%. »
Finally, women are also the most represented among employees receiving “low salaries”, that is to say salaries below two-thirds of the median salary of the entire population. In 2019, this represented less than 1,310 euros net monthly for full time (i.e. slightly more than the minimum wage). As INSEE then indicated, more than half of low-paid people are women (54%), even though they represent only 42% of all private sector employees.
