Les traitements des enseignants français, 1960-2004 : La voie de la démoralisation ?

Using a reconstruction of the pay scales of public-sector teachers from 1960 until 2004, in primary, secondary, and higher education, we show that the net real value of the careers of some categories of teachers, defined as the discounted expected sum of future net real wages, has decreased by 20 percent between 1981 and 2004. These categories are the university professors and the secondary agrégés teachers. The decreaseisduetoa15percentfallintherealvalueofthepublicsectorpointd?indice(i.e., index-point value used to compute all public sector base wages), and to an increase of compulsorypayrollcontributionsandtaxesduringthesameperiod,whichaccountsfor the remaining 5 percent. The net real pay associated with a given ladder on the pay scale of a professeur certifié (i;e. ?certified? high-school teachers) has also lost around 20percentofitspurchasingpowerbetween1981and2004,butchangesinthespeedof promotions have partially compensated for the wage erosion, in this category. The situation of primary school teachers is much better, insofar as a new career of professeurs des écoles has been created, with a higher wage-scale. We finally discuss the possible underpinnings of these historical trends from the point of view of Political Economy, and, using ideas drawn from modern Personnel Economics, we suggest that this policy has substantial hidden social costs, in the form of more severe moral hazard problems, decreased quality and productivity of service, and aggravated adverse selection in the recruitment process.