In retirement, wealth gaps persist. If we consider the income of retirees as a pyramid, those who are in the upper part, i.e. the wealthiest 10%, receive 7 times more than the bottom 10% (the worst off), as shown this study from the Observatory of Inequalities. The gap is barely less significant than that which exists between all households in France: according to the same organization, the wealthiest 10% of French people earn 8 times more than the poorest 10%.
When the “richest 10%” retirees share nearly 60 billion euros (2020 figure), or 17% of the total pension budget – private and public), the poorest 10%, for their part, must be satisfied with 3%, or 8.8 billion euros.
But how much is the average income of the wealthiest retirees? Certain personalities, such as the former Weather presenter Fabienne Amiach or the singer Dave, have recently revealed the amounts of their own pension. Both considered their income “low”.
With 1,700 euros gross per month, the second is actually a little less than 200 euros above the average (1,531 euros, according to the Drees, the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Finance).
As for the first, its 5,000 euros gross per month places it among the 2% (more precisely 1.7%) who receive the highest incomes in France, i.e. 4,500 euros gross per month, if we refer to the calculations taken up by an article in Pleine Vie published on May 15. The main source of the latter, an article from Mediapart dating from 2023, pointed out a certain opacity which reigns over the very high levels of retirement received by a minority of French people.
These variations come from inequalities between the amounts of supplementary pensions. In fact, the basic pension is capped at 1,932 euros per month in 2024 (excluding premiums).
Concerning Agirc-Arrco, the compulsory supplementary pension fund for employees in the private sector, it reflects salary inequalities since during their career, affiliated workers contribute to this fund according to their income. For various reasons, the salaries of some people can be much higher than those of the majority of French people.
Their contributions are converted into points upon retirement. The number of points is limited: the calculation base is limited to “8 Social Security ceilings”, as indicated by experts interviewed by Notre Temps. In 2024, this would correspond to 370,944 euros.
It should not be forgotten that to these sums can be added retirement savings plans, contracted during the period of activity by the companies for which the people concerned worked. More than 13 billion euros “forgotten” under these savings plans were still to be claimed in recent years.