A hospital doctor earns on average 57,000 euros per year in the public sector. For-profit clinics are less generous to these practitioners.
Almost two million health professionals work in France. The pay differentials are significant: between the start and the end of a career, income more than doubled. This is what a report from the Directorate for Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES) shows. published this July 4. It uses the data collected during the Great Health Conference held at the beginning of the year. Doctors, pharmacists and psychologists earn at least twice as much as the rest of the hospital staff.
Public-private gaps
This “portrait of health professionals” highlights the gap between the private sector – here separated between for-profit and non-profit establishments – and the public sector. Evaluating the salaries of practitioners working in clinics is proving difficult, according to DREES. Indeed, many have a liberal practice within the establishment and the salaries are very disparate.
The average calculated by the organization is therefore questionable, even if it clearly illustrates the differences in income. Year-round, doctors, pharmacists and psychologists earn € 57,600, or € 4,850 per month. Compensation is lower in the for-profit sector, standing at € 52,000. A gap undoubtedly linked to the greater liberal practice. In the hospital, almost all of the activity is done in the public framework (93%) although a liberal exercise is allowed.
Up to 104,000 euros per year
The analysis of salaries in the public is more precise. It highlights a logical evolution according to age: practitioners under 30 can thus hope to double their remuneration by the end of their career, if not more. The first years at the hospital are thus accompanied by a salary of approximately € 25,000 per year.
Depending on their status within the establishment, practitioners can radically change their income. Assistants, at the start of their career, are unsurprisingly less paid than hospital practitioners (PH), thus qualified after a competition. Combining university research and medical practice also seems more profitable: the salary increases by 30,000 euros per year. It is still necessary to pass an additional competition. The status of “university professor – hospital practitioner” (PU-PH) remains the best paid with an average of € 104,000 per year, or more than € 8,600 per month.
The more lucrative public for caregivers
For nursing staff (nurses, nursing assistants, technicians), a career in public hospitals is undoubtedly more attractive than in private establishments. A midwife earns around € 22,000 per year. But between for-profit and public structures, some 4,000 € separate the income. The gap is particularly marked among service agents and administrative employees – including nursing assistants. The salary in the public sector is 13% higher than in the lucrative private sector. Not to mention that part-time jobs are more frequent in clinics and that the evolution according to age is less marked than among doctors. Last point of disparity, but not the least: more women work in professions such as midwife, nurse, nursing assistant… Salaries are also lower for employees.
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