Who are the rich in France… and how do they live?

INSEE looked into the subject in a vast study and revealed that to be part of the 1% best paid employees in France, you must earn more than 10,200 euros net per month. This income comes as much from work as from investments, real estate and inheritance.

Do you earn more than 10,200 euros net per month for full time, or 122,600 euros per year? That is almost 7.5 times the minimum wage… If yes, according to INSEEyou are part of the 1% of highest paid employees, this is the result of a vast study by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, published Tuesday November 18. To be part of the best paid 0.1%, you must earn more than 27,000 euros per month, or 20 times the minimum wage.

According to INSEE, the robot portrait representative of these categories is most often that of a man over 50 years old, living in Île-de-France. We will not be surprised, but women only represent a small quarter of these workers. In the public, the salary level is lower: 1% of agents receive a net salary greater than 7,540 euros per month.

To earn that much money, you have to be a footballer. It’s not a joke! Salaried players from Ligue 1 clubs alone represent almost a third of the highest paid positions. Otherwise, they are business leaders, salaried managers, liberal professions, dentists, doctors, senior executives, engineers, financial or administrative directors who work in commerce and wealth management.

You don’t become rich just through your work. INSEE clearly shows that in the highest tax households, income is more diversified: significant salary accumulations, real estate, dividends, life insurance, etc. More than 60% of the richest have inherited at least once in their life. And here too, the richest tend to live in Île-de-France, mainly in Paris and Hauts-de-Seine. They are more often in couples without children – being separated weakens income anyway! Finally, it is interesting to see that in 20 years, the average annual income of the wealthiest has increased much more than that of other French people, mainly thanks to property income, but also financial income. INSEE concludes that today, inequalities in wealth are much greater than inequalities in standard of living.

The tax partly corrects these inequalities. In 20 years, the wealthiest have certainly seen their tax rate drop slightly, from 29% to 25%, but they have contributed more fiscally than other households. Thus, in 2022, they paid more than 10 billion euros in income taxes, or 13% of what this tax brings in, a share four times larger than their share in all income. Enough to give food for thought to parliamentarians who are debating the budget this November.