In France, certain regions display wage gaps between women and men well above the national average. One of them sadly won the title of worst student in terms of equal pay…
Every beginning of November, it’s the same story. From this date, women are expected to “work for free” until the end of the year. In question? The pay gap still very real between men and women in the labor market. Several factors explain this persistent difference: women are more often part-time, less present in positions of responsibility and concentrated in lower-paid employment sectors. This difference in salary can also vary depending on the sector: in public transport, for example, the differences are minimal.
However, equal pay is not a recent concept. Forty years ago, the Labor Code adopted a major law. “Every employer is required to ensure, for the same work or for work of equal value, equal pay between men and women.“, explains the text. And yet… in 2025, nothing has really changed. An INSEE study published in December 2024 confirmed that the salary gaps are still there. For the same working time, the average salary of female employees is 14.2% lower than that of men. Worse still, certain regions are breaking records. And guess what? There is one where being a woman on the job market is really bad paid…
If women are generally paid less well than men throughout France, one region sadly stands out for the extent of the gap: the Grand Est. In this region, the average net salary of women is 16.2% lower than that of men. A figure well above the European average, which amounts to 12% according to a Eurostat study dating from 2023. In other words, in the Grand Est, salary inequalities in employment and work are not only persistent, but also more marked than in the majority of European Union countries. A sad record for a very French region.
And the picture gets even darker when we look more closely at certain professional sectors. Because, as mentioned above, the differences also depend on working time, the type of position or even the field of activity. Thus, in the private sector, female employees in the Grand Est earn on average 21.8% less than men, again according to INSEE. A gulf that is difficult to justify, and which shows to what extent equal pay, professional equality and social justice remain a fight that is still very far from being won in the labor market.
