Equal Pay for Equal Work

We were having dinner with friends last night and had an interesting discussion with Christian and Thierry.  Christian used to work as a senior manager at one of France’s largest companies. Thierry is an HR manager at another very large French company.  What they told us was surprising.

In France, what you get paid depends heavily on where you went to school.  And not just at the beginning of your career, but throughout it.

If you went to one of les grandes écoles (the grand universities) you are paid much more than if you went to an average university.  And who knows what happens if you went to a lousy university?  You probably don't get paid squat.  That could explain why we never see any Cal grads in France – they can't make ends meet.

The most grande of the écoles are ENA and Polytechnique.  Christian, who attended an average university, explained that he had a colleague who had attended Polytechnique.  This colleague had the same job as Christian, the same experience and had comparable performance.  But he was paid twice as much!

Thierry explained that at his company, there are different pay grids, depending on where you went to school.

This can’t be great for the French economy, not paying for performance.  It might help explain the exodus of talented folks who don’t have the right academic credentials.  France’s loss is the gain of countries like the US and UK.

At the same time, it gave me an idea.  Maybe I should get a job in France.  I would be paid a fortune!  Because what école is more grande than Stanford?

KVS