02/06/09


Who Earns Most?


Companies in Luxembourg received last December preliminary results of a survey on wage structures conducted in 2006 on a sample of 38,000 employees. The Statistical Office Statec released now a comprehensive report, which shows among other results that employees in the financial sector earn 2.5 times more than those of the hotel and catering sector. Here is a detailed account of the bulletin.

In October 2006, the average gross monthly salary for a full-time job amounted to 3,243 euros: 3,024 euros for women and 3,359 euros for men. We note that the higher the employee climbs on the salary scale, the bigger the difference between men and women becomes. When a man received 11,767 euros, a woman received 7,998 euros. We are also told that 83% of all workers earned a gross monthly wage less than or equal to 4,500 euros, i.e. three times the minimum wage in October 2006.

Employees aged over 55 received on average a gross salary of 4,286 euros, compared with 2,089 euros for young people under the age of 25, which is slightly more than double the amount. Quite obviously their seniority level justifies this wage gap.

The bulletin also shows that university graduates earned on average 4,790 euros, compared with elementary school leavers who earned 2,334 euros. We note that the gap between employees with lower and higher secondary education is particularly high.

French cross-border commuters earned on average 20% less than residents of Luxembourg. The wage gap with commuters from Germany was 6% and with those from Belgium only 1%. The latter are on average more skilled and more often work as directors or senior managers.

Finally, significant differences exist between the various sectors of activity. The highest wages were paid in the financial sector (4,642 euros), followed by the sectors “Legal, IT, accounting, architecture and engineering” (3,905 euros) and “Health and social work” (3,731 euros). On the other hand, the hotel and catering sector (2,052 euros) as well as the sector of cleaning and provision of personnel (2,021 euros) are at the bottom of the salary scale. The wage differential is even greater when the bonuses are taken into account, which are very sizeable in the financial sector – the salary is thus increased by almost 20%, compared with 5% in the hotel and catering sector, which pays 2.5 times less.

To sum up, if you want to earn more, you should be of male gender, have a work experience of more than 30 years, be a university graduate and work in the financial sector!


Sophie Sellier
English version: Robert Mouris



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