Income Gap in France Grows as Richest Households Pull Further Ahead

France’s wealthiest people are typically men in their fifties and sixties, living in Paris as part of a childless couple and working as executives or running their own businesses. This snapshot of the super-rich emerges from a study published by France’s national statistics institute, which also reveals a dramatic widening of the income gap over the past 20 years.

Published on Tuesday, the Insee study shows the wealthiest households now earn 31 times more than average families, up from 21 times in 2003. It defines very high incomes by counting all taxable earnings and social benefits, minus direct taxes, then adjusting for household size.

Around 40,000 households qualify as “very high income”, earning more than €463,000 annually. Nearly half live in the Paris region, and 82 percent are married or in civil partnerships.

Their wealth comes not just from salaries or pensions but from profits on professional activity such as farmland, rental income and financial assets including shares, business stakes, life insurance and investment contracts.

The gap between rich and poor has grown even more starkly. The wealthiest now earn 167 times more than the poorest households, compared to 95 times two decades ago.

Income gaps widen

“Between 2003 and 2022, the average income of very high-income households increased more than that of other tax households, benefiting from the rise in financial and property income,” the institute said.

Their earnings can be more volatile during economic shocks. Even so, the wealthiest households contributed €10.7 billion in income tax revenue in 2022. Yet their tax rate fell from 29.2 percent in 2003 to 25.7 percent last year.

Professional footballers from Ligue 1 clubs make up more than a third of the top 100 highest-paid employees in France, with 36 appearing on the list. The remaining spots are filled by company directors and high-level executives.

Women remain heavily under-represented at the top.

Among very high salaries, defined as the top 1 percent of private sector positions earning more than €10,219 net per month, women account for just 24 percent. This compares to women representing 42 percent of full-time equivalent employees overall.

Women a minority

Only 10 women feature among the 100 wealthiest individuals.

“This lower representation of women among very high salaries contributes significantly to increasing the wage gap between women and men,” Insee noted.

The most affluent overall are those combining both high living standards, defined as the wealthiest 10 percent with more than €39,100 in adjusted annual income, and high wealth of more than €716,300 euros. This group comprised 1.6 million households in 2021.

Fifty-one percent were aged between 50 and 69, while 58 percent were managers or self-employed. Forty-seven percent lived as couples without children and 38 percent resided in the Paris area.

“Wealth inequalities are greater than living standard inequalities,” said Michel Duée, head of the household resources and living conditions department at Insee.

Rising property prices have contributed to increasing disparities, he added.