Who benefits from tax incentives? The heterogeneous wage incidence of a tax credit

•We study the wage effect of a large corporate tax credit in France.•The size of tax credit depends on the payroll of workers paid less than a threshold.•We find that half of the surplus generated by the reform falls onto workers.•Wage gains are restricted to incumbents in high-skill occupations.•The retention rate of these categories of workers increases.•Firms do not adjust wages in response to worker individual eligibility.