Changing companies does not allow you to have a better salary in the short term, according to INSEE

Since the health crisis, more employees are leaving their companies according to INSEE, particularly in the hope of a better salary. However, changing companies is not necessarily a good calculation.

This may be a consequence of the Covid-19 crisis: increasingly mobile employees, who leave their companies more regularly. According to an INSEE study, in 2023, the share of employees who had left the company they worked for a year earlier was 18.3%. By comparison, in 2019, before the health crisis, only 16.7% of employees had left the company they were with the previous year.

Among the motivations of employees to try their luck elsewhere: more than a quarter of them, 26.3%, hope to be better paid. And it is even a reason that weighs more and more heavily in the balance. In 2021, increasing their remuneration was a reason to leave their company for only 22.1% of employees.

But is changing companies really a good calculation when you want a better salary? No, at least not in the short term, answers INSEE. In 2022, employees who had stayed in the company they worked for in 2021 had seen their salary increase by 5.7% over one year. On the contrary, the income of employees who had changed companies only increased by 2.9%, or 2.8 points less. And this is not new. Already before the health crisis, in 2019, the income of stable employees had increased by 3.6% compared to only 0.8% for mobile employees, or exactly the same gap: 2.8 points.

And this can be explained, according to INSEE: first, we do not necessarily choose to change companies. We can also be forced to do so in the event of dismissal or fear of being dismissed, at the end of a fixed-term contract or in a situation of professional harassment for example. Then, even if the employee has chosen to try his luck elsewhere, he will lose the bonuses and benefits of his previous company. And these bonuses will not apply for the first year of his contract in his new company, not to mention that some of them also depend on seniority. The current recruitment difficulties of companies have therefore not had a favorable effect on mobile employees.

There are still exceptions to the rule, particularly among executives. As with other employees, the income of mobile executives increases less than that of their stable colleagues, but the health crisis seems to have reduced the gap somewhat. In 2022, the salary of an executive who had stayed in their company had increased by 6.7%, compared to 4.8% if they had gone elsewhere, a gap of 1.9 points. Before the pandemic, in 2019, this gap was 2.7 points. According to INSEE, this is “perhaps a reflection of greater bargaining power in a tighter labor market.” Among workers, on the contrary, the gap remains stable.

For an employee on a fixed-term contract, the logic is even completely opposite: changing companies allows you to increase your salary more significantly. Thus, in 2022, mobile fixed-term contract employees saw their salary increase by 13.2%, compared to 7.8% for their stable colleagues, a gap of 5.4 points. Indeed, employees on fixed-term contracts often earn less, so the room for improvement is greater.

In addition, for some fixed-term contracts, changing companies sometimes allows access to a permanent contract. That said, this “mobility bonus” has eroded somewhat over the years. In 2019, the gap between stable and mobile employees was 6.8%.