French wages increased in 2022 but less than inflation

Depending on whether we see the glass half full or half empty, we can read good or bad news for French employees: two surveys published on Wednesday August 31 confirm that the budgets devoted by companies to wage increases are well on the rise again in 2022, without however catching up with the level of inflation at 5.8% over one year in August. According to the human resources consulting firm LHH, which surveyed 180 companies representing more than one million employees, the median increase would even reach a ten-year high, at 3%. This is 0.5% more than the January forecast.

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For the Deloitte firm, whose survey covers as many employees, divided into 300 companies, the increase is slightly less (+ 2.5% all socio-professional categories combined), only returning to pre-crisis levels. The increase concerns all sectors of activity, details LHH, with a budget for the mandatory annual negotiations (NAO) slightly higher in industry (3.15%) and in IT (4%) but lower in the financial tertiary sector (2.5% after 1.4% in 2021).

” An equation “

The two studies note that general increases, that is to say for all employees of the company, have also become predominant again, whereas the practice had continued to decline in recent years in favor of individual increases.

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“Despite the health crisis, companies had maintained increases in 2020 in line with their forecasts. But they suffered the blow in 2021, with forecasts of 1.45%, a very low level which they aimed to catch up with this year. The new economic and social crisis, inflation, and the issue of purchasing power, have led them to make a special effort”recalls Delphine Landeroin, director of social performance projects at LHH.

During the first quarter, inflation reinforced the expectations and demands of employees, adding to the equation the risk of social tensions

The LHH survey thus corroborates the findings of Dares, the statistics department of the Ministry of Labour, which, in a study on the evolution of wages in the private sector, published on August 12, noted an increase of 3% over a year of the basic monthly wage index for all employees. The same study pointed out that in constant euros, given the level of inflation, this index fell by 3% on the contrary, all categories combined, and even by 3.6% for intermediate professions, and 3.7% for frames.

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