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Évaluation de l’Index d’égalité professionnelle

Thomas Breda, Juliette Ducoulombier, Marion Leturcq, Joyce Sultan Parraud, Paul Dutronc-Postel, Maxime Tô
March 2023
The study presented in this report provides an evaluation of the impact of the introduction of the Index on pay gaps and, more generally, on gender inequalities within the firms concerned.
Reference IPP Report No. 42

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Breda, Thomas, Ducoulombier, Juliette, Dutronc-Postel, Paul, Leturcq, Marion, Sultan, Joyce, Tô, Maxime (March 2023). ‘Évaluation de l'Index d'égalité professionnelle’, IPP Report, No. 42. The Institut des politiques publiques (IPP).
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Presentation

In September 2018, the French government introduced a series of measures aimed at reducing gender inequality, including the introduction of the Professional Equality Index. Since 2019, all private firms with more than 50 employees have been required to calculate this indicator and achieve a minimum score on the Index; failure to do so may result in penalties. This Index introduces, for the first time in policies to combat gender-related inequalities, an obligation on firms to achieve specific results, rather than merely an obligation to make efforts.

This study evaluated the impact of the introduction of the Professional Equality Index on gender inequalities within firms. To do so, it draws on data reported by firms and detailed administrative data concerning pay and hours worked by all private-sector employees.

Key Results

1. The Index’s coverage is very incomplete

Only 50 per cent of firms (44 per cent of SMEs and 93 per cent of firms with more than 1,000 employees) that are normally required to report do so, providing a score out of 100.
Only a quarter of private-sector employees are included in the calculation of the Index’s pay gap indicator.

2. The introduction of the Index has had no detectable effect on gender inequality in the firms concerned

Firms with fewer than 50 employees (not subject to the Index) and those with more than 50 employees (subject to the Index) show remarkably parallel trends in terms of gender inequality between 2010 and 2020. No change in trend is observed for firms subject to the Index following its introduction in 2018.

3. The Index tends to obscure the actual gender inequalities

The good results achieved by firms regarding pay gaps are linked to two questionable methodological choices made in calculating the Index’s pay gap indicator:

  • the application of a tolerance threshold (all gaps of less than 5 per cent are set to 0)
  • the use of men as the reference group to normalise the gaps (gaps within each group are divided by the average pay for men, which reduces them when women are paid less than men but increases them when the opposite is true).

4. Firms that report their Index are no more virtuous – in terms of their performance on gender equality – than those that do not

The administrative data used in the study make it possible to measure gender inequalities for both firms that report an Index and those that do not: firms that do not report their Index or state that they are unable to calculate it are no more unequal than the others. However, they report scores for the pay gap indicator that are higher than those recalculated from the administrative data.

It is observed that for the simple and transparent indicator—the proportion of women among the ten highest earners—firms’ reported figures match their reconstructed results, whereas this is no longer the case for the complex and adjustable pay gap indicator. This suggests that the use of complex and opaque indicators may enable firms to conceal their actual inequalities.

Method and Data

Event study Regression discontinuity design Data matching
  • administrative data from the ‘Tous Salariés’ database, including the remuneration received and the hours worked each year by all employees
  • administrative data from the ‘Indexegapro’ database, which contains the figures reported (overall score and components) by firms and economic and social units since 2018, as part of the obligation to report and publish the Index

The ‘Base Tous Salariés’ database makes it possible to measure gender inequalities within each firm each year and to compare how these inequalities have evolved over time for firms both affected by and not affected by the implementation of the Professional Equality Index. By combining it with the “Indexegapro” database, it is then possible (i) to examine in detail the proportions of firms and employees theoretically and actually affected by the implementation of the Index, (ii) to compare the extent of gender inequalities in firms that report a calculable Index with those that do not report one or state that it cannot be calculated, and to (iii) compare the scores reported by firms for the Index with gender inequalities as reconstructed from the ‘Tous Salariés’ database.

Partners

This study received financial support from the IRES (Institute for Economic and Social Research) and was carried out as part of the Agence d’objectifs programme. It was produced under an agreement between the CFDT, INED and the IPP.

 

Last modified: July 21, 2026