Society Gap between the rich and the poor in France

Maciamo

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The latest figures on the revenues and assets of French people show that the poorest 10% earn less than 780 euro per month, while the richest 10% earn over 2,500 euro.

The total assets of the 10% poorest doesn't exceed 2,200 euro in average, virtually nothing compared to the 450,000 euro that the richest 10% possess in average.

This statistics are quite surprising. The nominal GDP per capita in France was US$ 35,404 in 2006, approximately 28,000 euro per person per year.

As it only includes people in employment (63% of the French population), the "average" salaries shoud be about 45,000 euro per worker per year.

However, it seems that only the top 10% earners enjoy such an income.

I didn't hear in the news whether the study counted only the disposable income, i.e. after tax.

With tax levels reaching over 50% in France, that would mean that a good deal of the GDP actually goes to the state.

If that is so, it means that the gross income of the top 10% is over 5,000 euro.

Nevertheless, I can't believe that 10% of the French earn less than 780 euro per month. This is less than an unemployed person on the dole earns in Belgium (tax-free). Those must be people who are unemployed and cannot be on the dole, i.e. immigrants or former self-employed people who stopped working. Or retired people with no or little pension.

It is stunning that 90% of the people earn less than 2,500 euro net per month (less than 28,000 euro/year). This is very little. Almost any cadre, manager, professional (lawyer, doctor, accountant...) or computer specialist should earn more than that. Let's add to this all the shop owners or other self-employed people who do make a good living...

Even a qualified manual worker (plumber, electrician, carpenter, etc.) almost always earn over 3,000 euro after tax (easy when they earn between 40 and 100 euro per hour). But as the study only includes "declared income", it is normal that many of the construction workers don't make the top 10%, as black labour is very common.
 

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