Salary: do you earn more than average French, according to your profile?

How much does a young person really win according to his diploma? INSEE reveals average wages according to the level of career and training.

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“How much will I win after my diploma?” This question burns the lips of many students and young workers when choosing their orientation or entering the labor market. After years of study and effort, the salary received at the start of a career is often scrutinized. But beware: Not all diplomas are equal When we talk about remuneration. While some guarantee access to comfortable wages, others are struggling to offer real financial valuation to young graduates.

So what about it really? To answer this question, INSEE looked at the subject in the last 2025 edition of its file Training and employmentpublished this Wednesday, February 12. The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies has therefore analyzed the remuneration of young people according to their diploma level and the number of years sold Since the end of their studies. Logically, the higher the level of training, the greater the starting salary.

1,940 euros net on average

Unsurprisingly, a long diploma (Bac +5 and more) therefore remains the best passport for a comfortable salary at the start of a career. In full -time equivalent, a young graduate of a master’s degree or more, out of school for less than four years, receives a median salary of 2,000 euros net per month. In other words, half of these young workers are paid more than 2,000 euros, the other less. In contrastthose who enter the labor market after a bac +2 or bac +3 (license, goal, BTS, etc.) must be satisfied with 1,550 euros net monthly.

This gap is widening more for young people who entered the labor market with a simple secondary diploma. INSEE explains it without detour: “Superior graduates access many to jobs of executives or Intermediate professionswhile young secondary school graduates occupy in all less qualified positions. ” Result, the latter receive 1,410 euros net per month in full -time equivalent, an amount well below the remuneration offered to higher graduates.

Note also that the least qualified workers are also those who most often occupy part -time jobs. Even by adjusting their salary to full time, these workers remain the least well -off. Their median remuneration thus caps at 1,300 euros net monthly, or 700 euros less than their counterparts graduated from a bac +5.

Wage differences between women and men are widening over time

Women, more often confronted with part -time suffered that men must also be satisfied with lower wages. Even if, as the INSEE points out, “The difference in salary between women and men is very little marked at the start of their career”. In fact, among young people fresh out of training, the median net salary of women is 1,570 euros, against 1,600 euros for men, a difference limited to 2%.

But this Relative equality Don’t last. The more seniority in the labor market increases, the more wage gap is widening. And spectacularly: in generations that have completed their studies for 11 years or more, the salary gap climbs to 24%. The men then display a median salary of 2,100 euros net, when women must be satisfied with 1,700 euros. It will therefore be necessary to wait a little longer to see the effects of the European directive on the wage transparencyexpected for 2026 … and hope that it finally changes the game.