During the year, something revolutionary happened in the Parisian consulting firm of Caroline*, 28 years old. “Someone shared their salary on our group’s Microsoft Teams conversation,” breathes the young woman. The discussion in question, which brings together consultants of the same “grade”, brings together around fifty people. In this period of inflation, the question of wages was then at the center of all discussions. “We know that our salaries are based on a salary grid, but we don’t know it exactly, explains Caroline. The only information we have is that part of the remuneration is indexed to the school from which we are graduates”. Those of the major engineering schools generally have the highest salary, while former students of business schools or humanities are less well noted. “So that, sometimes, we find ourselves with quite absurd situations: a consultant who graduated from a C school can have a lot more seniority but be less well paid than his colleague who has just arrived from an A+ school! “, says Caroline.
The revelation of the first salary therefore caused a slight wind of rebellion to blow through the ranks of the consultants. “Two or three people in turn shared their salary on the conversation, but we mostly talked about it in small groups,” she continues. Caroline thus used the information collected to emphasize that she was not satisfied with her salary during her individual interview with her superior. “It allowed me to have much more precise information than if I had simply relied on that of the staff representatives, she believes. That’s why we try to be the most transparent. possible between us”. In a small committee, Caroline therefore decided to break the ban around the amount of her salary. But transparency on the subject is not unanimous: the taboo linked to money remains strong in French companies – and revealing one’s salary is always a factor of discomfort.
“Equal pay for equal work”
A principle is nevertheless established in the law: “for equal work, equal pay”. But the devil is in the details: exceptions actually allow any employer, for an equal position, to produce an “objective” difference in remuneration. These have been defined in a judgment of the Court of Cassation. They are, as in the case of Caroline’s firm, diplomas – if the employer can prove that they demonstrate specific knowledge or skills -, seniority, but also “experience”. Criteria broad enough to allow pay gaps that can sometimes look like a chasm, especially between the sexes. According to the latest INSEE statistics published in March 2023, the difference in salary between men and women working time and in comparable jobs was 4%. This discrepancy is particularly marked among executives (16.1%) and workers (14.3%).
To combat wage discrimination, 71% of OECD countries have therefore implemented pay transparency policies since the early 2000s. Twenty of them exist throughout the world, according to a study by Zoë Cullen, professor at Harvard Business School. In Norway, for example, a country where wage differentials are greatly reduced by collective agreements, anyone can find out what their neighbor’s wages are… and have been since the 19th century. In 2014, however, these searches are no longer anonymized: inquiring about someone’s pay results in an automatic notification email to the person concerned.
#Balanceyoursalary
Not that in France: rare are the companies which display – inside or outside the company – the amounts of their remuneration. According to a YouGov-Management survey conducted for the site Talent.com in September 2022, 69% of French respondents indicated that salaries are confidential in their company. However, many employees seem to be more and more open to this transparency operation. In October, in the midst of a strike for pension reform, Internet users had revealed their salaries – including bonuses – on social networks, in support of strikers in refineries. A lecturer displays his eight years of seniority and his 2,500 euros net per month. An IT executive explains that he receives 4,800 euros gross monthly. A veterinary employee receives 2,500 euros net also for “40 hours a week, more on-call duty, more guards, more pressure”. This trend is not limited to only mood swings on social networks: still according to the same YouGov-Management survey, more than 6 out of 10 French people said that they would feel better if their remuneration was known to all their colleagues.
Talking about transparency can be done at two levels. The first is semi-transparency: that of the salary scales, which makes it possible to know where one’s remuneration is in relation to a sector or an area. In the metallurgy industry, for example, collective agreements display scales that vary, depending on the package, between 20,522 euros and 83,294 euros per year. “But from what I’ve seen in the industry, such as fast food or construction, these grids don’t give an accurate representation of salaries in these occupations, which are always, on average, higher than what that we see in collective agreements, notes Me Jean-François Charroin, lawyer specializing in labor law. It should also be noted that a certain number of collective agreements (and in particular those of fast food) are not very favorable to employees. , and may even provide for a level of remuneration lower than the legal level”.
“Have a realistic view of the market”
Other companies – like Caroline’s – set up specific salary scales. “We see a lot of this reflex settling in start-ups, which tend to display transparency to attract talent”, explains Guillaume Leboube, founder of Leboube Marketing, which advises and supports companies in their recruitment. Tatiana*, former COO of several start-ups, now employed in the public sector, agrees with this observation. “I have tried to establish grids and systematic rules for the structures where I have been. Looking at market values item by item, taking seniority into account, I have tried to establish ranges of salary, she says. I think it’s fairer than a pure face-to-face negotiation”.
The second level – that of complete transparency – shows all the salaries of each company. “Which is more difficult to obtain, but which must be democratized”, believes Marie*. This young lawyer in her thirties explains “calling people employed in other firms to ask them for their remuneration”. “We also encourage each other to distribute the grids of each cabinet,” she continues. Where others – “especially the older ones”, she slips – might see a conflict of loyalties, she believes it is a matter of survival. “It’s the only way we have to have a realistic view of the market so that we don’t drag each other down,” she says. Communicate, in order to better negotiate: “In a labor market that benefits the employee as at the moment, which is extremely rare, we all have an interest in being transparent to rebalance the balance of power and establish good practices”, believes Sarah* , in her thirties, also a consultant in the private sector.
European directive
Revealing the amount of his remuneration when one is still in office is not without risk, however. “The individualisation of remuneration – and therefore its communication – leads to salary differences for the same position, and therefore often individual conflicts”, notes Daphné Breton, work and organizational psychologist. Understand: revealing your salary can lead to jealousy. Revealing your game to get better information can be worth the effort, but it is better to do it with people you trust. “Anyway, know that you do not have to justify your remuneration, insists the psychologist. It is up to management to assume.” If the specialist does not recommend any particular policy, preferring “to leave the choice of transparency to everyone”, she nevertheless notes one thing: “In all the companies where I have been, the transparency of remuneration has been subject to tensions” .
Despite the enthusiasm of the French to vent these semi-secrets, France is therefore far from Norwegian clarity. However, we will soon have to get started… at least a little: on April 24, the Council of the European Union adopted a directive on the transparency of salaries. Intended to be transposed into French law within three years, it provides that employers inform candidates of the amount or range of remuneration for published advertisements.
*Names have been changed.