France
Latest Average Wage
+3.7% · 5 years
$60,483
Country Comparison
France vs United Kingdom
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
France
vs
United Kingdom
$60,4832025
Latest Average Wage
United Kingdom +9.6%
(vs France)
$66,2992025
+3.7%2025
5-Year Wage Change
France +2.5 pts
(vs United Kingdom)
+1.2%2025
+1.7%2025
10-Year Wage Change
United Kingdom +1.6 pts
(vs France)
+3.3%2025
70.42024
Overall Price Level
United Kingdom +13.9 index points
(vs France)
84.32024
Wages are PPP-adjusted average annual wages; price levels use the United States reference of 100. Years shown are each country's latest reported observation.
How Wages Have Changed
Follow PPP-adjusted average annual wages in constant prices across both economies.
USD PPP, constant prices · missing years shown as gaps, never interpolated
United Kingdom
Latest Average Wage
+1.2% · 5 years
$66,299
Wage Milestones
France
10 Years Ago
$59,485 (2015)
Historical Peak
$61,289 (2019)
Latest Wage
$60,483 (2025)
United Kingdom
10 Years Ago
$64,199 (2015)
Historical Peak
$66,480 (2019)
Latest Wage
$66,299 (2025)
Compare Everyday Price Levels
See how eight consumer price categories compare with the United States reference value of 100.
United States = 100 · Differences shown in index points
France (FRA)United Kingdom (GBR)
Overall
−13.9 index points
100
70.4vs84.3
Food
+8.3 index points
100
93.4vs85.1
Clothing
+7.2 index points
100
86.1vs78.9
Housing
−27.1 index points
100
68.3vs95.4
Health
−28.7 index points
100
43.4vs72.1
Transport
+3.0 index points
100
114vs111
Recreation
−8.0 index points
100
82.2vs90.2
Restaurants & Accommodation
+2.9 index points
100
90.1vs87.2
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
United Kingdom's latest average wage is $66,299 for 2025, about 9.6% higher than France's $60,483 for 2025 — computed straight from the two reported values. Per year, that works out to roughly $5,816 on the shared purchasing-power basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, France shows the stronger movement at +1.0%, against +0.7% for United Kingdom. The five-year horizon keeps the same ordering: +3.7% against +1.2%. Both percentages are real, PPP-adjusted changes from the reported wage series.
03
Largest Price Gap
Health shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 43.4 for France against 72.1 for United Kingdom. United Kingdom sits on the higher side of that 28.7-point spread; France reads 28.7 index points lower on the US=100 scale. Index points are not percentages; the two scales answer different questions.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Restaurants & Accommodation: France reads 90.1 and United Kingdom 87.2 for 2024, just 2.9 index points apart on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Transport at 3.0 index points apart. A gap this small leaves the category effectively tied on the shared US=100 scale.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
United Kingdom's latest PPP-adjusted average wage is $66,299 for 2025, moderately higher than France's $60,483 for 2025. In relative terms the gap is 9.6% — calculated from the two reported values — equivalent to about $5,816 a year on the same purchasing-power basis. No extra conversion is needed here: each figure is already a purchasing-power-adjusted annual amount in constant prices. For scale, neither series has moved by that much within any single reported year, so the gap is structural rather than the product of one unusual observation. Over ten years France recorded +1.7% and United Kingdom +3.3%, so the two series have been moving in the same long-term direction.
Wage Direction
The five-year direction is shared here: both series rise, with different momentum on each side. France stands just below its historical high of $61,289 in 2019, only 1.3% away, with a ten-year change of +1.7%. United Kingdom stands just below its historical high of $66,480 in 2019, only 0.3% away, with a ten-year change of +3.3%. The shared direction still leaves room for different speeds: +3.7% for France against +1.2% for United Kingdom, so the distance between the two levels keeps shifting. All changes here are measured in real, PPP-adjusted terms, so they describe purchasing-power movement rather than nominal pay increases.
Price Profile
France's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 70.4, and United Kingdom's reads 84.3, each measured against the United States reference of 100. Neither country is uniformly higher: France leads in 4 of the 8 comparable categories and United Kingdom in 4, so the profile splits by category rather than by country. The widest separation is in Health: 43.4 for France against 72.1 for United Kingdom, a gap of 28.7 index points. At the other end, Restaurants & Accommodation brings the two closest — 90.1 versus 87.2, a gap of just 2.9 index points. Relative to the US benchmark, France reads above 100 in 1 of its 8 reported categories, and United Kingdom in 1 of its 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
