Much more frequent salary increases but without effect on the reduction of gender pay inequalities. These are the main lessons of annual barometer of the Association for the employment of executives (Apec).
According to this barometer carried out among 13,000 executives in the private sector and published on Monday 19 June, the proportion of executives having benefited from an individual or collective increase in 2022 has reached a record level (57%, + 11 points compared to 2021).
The median gross annual compensation (fixed + variable) of executives thus stood at 52,000 euros on December 31, compared to 51,000 euros a year earlier. In 2022, the share of augmented executives has increased regardless of their age, sector of activity, company size or position held. It has particularly increased in the industry sector (+19 pts) and in large companies with 5,000 or more employees (+15 pts).
Mobility, a profitable strategy
For Apec, if efforts on salary have been made, it is because “many companies have been faced with ever more significant recruitment difficulties” but also because of inflation. “Despite this increase, some executives have lost purchasing power due to this high inflation (5.2% in 2022)”, notes Apec.
Apec stresses that mobility, whether internal to the company or external, continues to be a profitable strategy for executives. Indeed, in 2022, 74% of executives who changed company (without going through unemployment) and 72% of executives who changed position within their company received a salary increase, compared to only 55% of executives who did not evolved internally.
Gender inequalities
However, wage inequalities between women and men persist. In 2022, as in previous years, women were slightly less likely than men to benefit from an increase (54% against 59%), in particular among young people (62% against 70%).
The median gross annual remuneration of women thus reached 48,000 euros in 2022, i.e. a differential of 15% compared to that of men (55,000 euros). Stable for years, this gap varies from 6% among those under 35 to 19% among those aged 55 and over.
“Women, who are relatively younger than men, often do not hold the same jobs. They are, for example, under-represented in positions of hierarchical responsibility,” explains Apec.
But, with an equivalent profile and position, “a wage gap of 7% persists and increases with age: from 3% for those under 35, it reaches 10% for those aged 55 and over”, according to the ‘association. This gap “results from discriminatory behavior, conscious or unconscious, on the part of employers”, she judges.
The director general of Apec Gilles Gateau, quoted in the press release, deplored “a distressing observation, which has been repeated year after year for 10 years”. “Talking about it, making laws, giving yourself objectives and indexes is good but… that is clearly not enough, we have to act stronger and faster!”, he asks.