The transparency of remuneration in the public service reveals significant differences between the different bodies of the State. The latest annual report reveals the figures on the highest salaries in the Republic.
The 2024 annual report on the state of the civil service has just been published. This document published each year by the General Directorate of Administration and Civil Service (DGAFP) lifts the veil on the reality of the remuneration of state agents, local authorities and the hospital sector for the year 2022.
It thus reveals that the average monthly net salary across the entire civil service stands at 2,527 euros. The state civil service comes first with a monthly salary of 2,743 euros, closely followed by the hospital civil service at 2,734 euros. The territorial civil service brings up the rear with 2,145 euros net per month on average.
Despite a majority female presence (65% of the workforce), women receive on average 10.5% less than their male counterparts. Furthermore, these averages hide other disparities internally and in comparison with the private sector…
If the average monthly net salary in the private sector of 2,630 euros slightly exceeds that in the public sector, this simple average masks a more complex reality. Up to the seventh decile, that is to say for 70% of the workforce, the public service offers more advantageous salaries than the private sector. The trend then reverses clearly.
From the 8th decile, which concerns the 20% of the best paid people, salaries in the private sector exceed those in the public sector. This gap increases significantly in the highest salary brackets. Private salaries exceed those of the public by 3% from the 8th decile, then by 12% at the ninth decile. For the last percentile, i.e. the 1% of the best paid employees, the difference becomes considerable: private sector salaries exceed those of the public sector by 28%.
This disparity is particularly visible among executives and higher intellectual professions, who represent more than a fifth of the workforce in the private and public sectors. Their average monthly net salary reaches 4,489 euros in the private sector, compared to 3,611 euros in the public sector. Conversely, employees and workers, who constitute 57% of the private sector workforce and 46% of the public sector, are better off in the public sector with an average salary of 2,031 euros, compared to 1,913 euros in the private sector.
It is in the last third of the highest salaries that the figures become particularly edifying. The report reveals that in 2022 the ministries allocated an average envelope of more than 2 million euros to their ten best-paid agents, for a gross monthly average of 16,799 euros.
An amount which even exceeds the remuneration of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, whose pay slip of 16,039.71 euros gross monthly was revealed by Libération last May. These civil servants are part of the 1% of the best paid civil service agents, who receive more than 7,206 euros net per month, with an average of 9,217 euros.
