General increase, as the unions want, or increases targeted at the lowest paid agents? The government receives this Monday, June 12 in Paris the eight unions of civil servants to reveal to them the wage measures which it envisages in order to cushion the persistent shock of inflation.
Faced with soaring prices (5.1% over one year in May, according to INSEE) and especially food products (+14.1%), the unions, united by their common opposition to the pension reform, unanimously demand a general increase, of varying magnitude depending on the organisation. For Céline Verzeletti, patron of the CGT federation of state officials, “a general revaluation of at least 10%” of salaries is necessary, she said to AFP.
In recent weeks, the executive has seemed determined to make a gesture for the lowest paid civil servants but has maintained the vagueness on possible general measures which would benefit all of the 5.7 million public officials. Civil Service Minister Stanislas Guerini has already received the unions one by one at the end of May.
An average monthly net salary of 2378 euros
In 2020, the average monthly net salary amounted to 2378 euros in the civil service, according to the last numbers available communicated by the Ministry of Transformation and Public Service. In detail, this average monthly net salary is 2639 euros in the FPE (State Public Service), 2019 euros in the FPT (Territorial Public Service) and 2464 euros in the FPH (Hospital Public Service), according to these figures from in particular INSEE.
This average monthly net salary in 2020 was 3012 euros for a category A civil servant, 2514 euros for a category B civil servant, 1910 euros for a category C civil servant and 1882 euros for a contract agent.
10% of low-paying positions
According to these figures communicated by the Ministry of Transformation and the Public Service, 10% of civil service positions are paid less than 1,482 euros, while 10% are paid more than 3,446 euros.
While one in five public officials is paid the minimum wage, “piecemeal patching is no longer on the agenda”, warned Friday by press release the CGT, the first union in the public sector.
A gap between men and women
If the net monthly salary is 2378 euros on average, the differences in remuneration between men and women are still significant. Thus, in 2020, the monthly net salary amounted to 2,573 euros for men, against 2,270 euros for women across the entire civil service. This pay gap between men and women is therefore 11.8% in the public service as a whole.
In the FPE, the net monthly salary is 2885 euros for men, against 2485 for men. In the FPT, women earn 1945 euros net monthly, while men earn 2126 euros. This gap is even more marked in the FPH: the net monthly salary is 2344 euros for women, against 2897 euros for men.
The salary of agents increased by 3.5% in 2022
The salary of State agents, communities and hospitals has already been increased by 3.5% in the summer of 2022. The cost of this gesture for public finances has been calculated at 7.5 billion euros in full year. A substantial amount at a time when the government is hunting for savings for its 2024 draft budget.
Stronger than the previous ones, the 3.5% increase in the summer of 2022 did not lead to an “equivalent increase in the purchasing power of public officials”, regretted Friday June 9 Le Sens du service public, a think tank essentially made up of executives from the sector.
It was a “strong increase” but it took place “in a context of significant inflation and after ten years of freezing” of the salaries of civil servants (apart from a two-step increase of 1.2% at the end of François Hollande’s five-year term), notes the think tank.