At what income level are people considered rich in France? In a recent report, the Observatory of Inequalities analyzed wage gaps by type of household. Depending on whether you are a single person, or with children, where do you fall on the scale?
“With my salary and my family composition, am I part of the working class, middle class, or wealthy?” Many French people ask this question when they receive their pay slip. And very often, it remains unanswered, because there are always different elements, sometimes complex, to take into account. Result: it is not always easy to know where you are on the salary scale. To answer this question, the Observatory of Inequalities produced a report on January 15, 2024 entitled “Poor, middle or rich? Income by household type. A report that allows you to easily learn whether you belong to the “well-off”, “middle” or “popular” French group.
For this, the Observatory of Inequalities based itself first on the poverty threshold, which is set at 50% of the median threshold (which represents 965 euros per month for a single person), to be able to determine the wealth threshold. which is therefore double the median standard of living. From there, they established that the working classes bring together people whose “incomes are among the lowest 30%”the wealthy classes are “the 20% with the highest incomes” and consequently, the middle classes “are between the poorest 30% and the top 20%”, can we read in the document.
But another parameter comes into play: that of the composition of the household. “Depending on the composition of the family to which we belong, we are not rich or poor at the same income level”, notes the Observatory of Inequalities which distinguished six different types of households. Based on these criteria, nearly 7% of French people can then consider themselves rich. Are you one of them?
In detail, a single person, without children, must earn at least 3,860 euros per month net of taxes to enter the wealthy bracket. For a couple without children, the wealth threshold is set at 5,790 euros net per month to be in this bracket. The parent who lives alone with a child must reach 5,018 euros net per month. A couple with a child under 14 is considered “rich” if they earn 6,948 euros net per month. With two children over 14, the salary increases to 9,650 euros net. The threshold then increases to 10,808 euros and more for couples with three children, including one under 14 years old.
Difficult to imagine for some, and yet the wealth threshold has increased significantly in recent years. If you want to know precisely where you are, you can always use the Observatory of Inequalities simulator by indicating your monthly net salary. For example, for a salary of 1680 euros, we learn that 26% of employees earn less than this amount in France currently.