University professors in France are paid far less than their peers in other countries as the government bureaucracy prevents top researchers from negotiating higher salaries, new analysis suggests. While most senior academics in France enjoy “almost total job security” thanks to their “lifetime positions”, professors are significantly underpaid compared with chairs in the UK, Germany and the US, according to a new study by Johannes Angermuller, professor of discourse at the University of Warwick, published in the Higher Education journal.

Comparing publicly available salary scales, Prof. Angermuller highlights a huge pay deficit experienced by French university professors in comparison with their international peers. “After taxes and charges, full professors should expect at least £40,000 (Rs.32 lakh) in the UK, €40,000 (Rs.32.5 lakh) in Germany and $50,000 (Rs.40 lakh) in US state universities, but (theoretically) they receive just over €30,000 (Rs.21 lakh) in France,” explains Prof. Angermuller, who is also a member of the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, a grande ecole that is part of Paris’ PSL Research University.

Those at the top end of professorial salary scales, which can hit about £120,000 (Rs.97 lakh) at some UK universities, will also find limited financial rewards in France, says the study, which is titled ‘Academic careers and the valuation of academics: a discursive perspective on status categories and academic salaries in France as compared to the US, Germany and Great Britain’. “It is not uncommon to see some net salaries of senior academic staff rise to £60,000, €80,000 and $200,000 (in the UK, Germany and US) respectively,” explains Prof. Angermuller. “The situation is different in France, where… end-of-career professors’ (salaries) rarely exceed €60,000 (Rs.41 lakh),” he adds.

Prof. Angermuller, whose research is funded by the European Research Council, blames the limited earning power of French professors on the massive influence of the country’s government bureaucracy, in which “most academic staff are civil servants and almost all are paid by the central government following a single national salary system”. Other factors also limit the salaries of French professors, the study says. For instance, French universities typically don’t have strong deans or heads of departments who might be encouraged to recruit strategically on behalf of an institution, which would create a transfer market and higher wages for professors.
Meanwhile, the “relative absence of an inter-institutional job market”, thanks to a job-for-life culture, means there’s little appetite to lure researchers from rival institutions on better terms, the study adds.