the essential
The Michelin group announced Wednesday in Clermont-Ferrand the establishment of a “decent” salary above the minimum wage for its 132,000 employees around the world. Enough to put the government’s back against the wall to “discard” France as promised by Gabriel Attal.
This is an announcement that has not gone unnoticed. While Carlos Tavares, CEO of the Stellantis automobile group, has once again sparked a lively controversy this year over his staggering salary – 36.5 million euros annually –, Florent Menegaux, CEO of the Michelin group – who has indicated that he receives a salary fixed salary of 1.1 million euros plus “a variable bonus of 150% maximum (i.e. 1,650,000 euros)”, considering himself “extremely well paid” – gave a completely different face to the big French bosses.
The tire group, in fact, announced on Wednesday April 17 in Clermont-Ferrand the establishment of a “decent” salary and a “universal social protection base” for its 132,000 employees around the world.
“A logical commitment” for the CEO of Michelin
This decent salary guarantees remuneration equivalent to the “living wage” as defined by the United Nations Global Compact, Michelin announced. The CEO of Michelin was also elected last year president of the Réseau France Global Compact for a period of three years, the national branch of the United Nations Global Compact whose vocation is to structure concrete actions around ten universal principles relating to Human Rights, international standards and the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals. The decent wage must allow “each employee to provide for the essential needs” of a family of four (food, transport, education, health costs) but also to build up precautionary savings and acquire consumer goods.
“It is a logical commitment to all employees of the group […] You devote time to developing yourself and the business and in return we give you the means at least for a family of four individuals – two parents and two children – that a single salary allows you to consider housing, food but also leisure, a little savings, etc.,” declared Florent Menegaux.
More paid in Paris than in Clermont-Ferrand
In France, this represents 39,638 euros per year for a gross salary in Paris, 25,356 euros in Clermont-Ferrand, where the group’s headquarters are located. That is more than the minimum wage which amounts to 21,203 euros gross. In Brazil, Michelin’s “decent” salary is 37,347 reals (for a minimum salary of 16,944 reals) and in China 69,312 yuan (minimum salary of 29,040 yuan). “On average, the decent wage represents between 1.5 times and 3 times the minimum wage,” said Florianne Viala, director of remuneration for the group.
By the end of 2024, Michelin’s 132,000 employees, whose turnover was 28.3 billion euros in 2023 for a profit of 2 billion, will also benefit from a “universal social protection base” which consists of maternity leave of at least 14 weeks and paternity leave of four weeks paid at 100%. In France, some companies, including the pharmaceutical group Sanofi or Abeille Assurances, offer longer paternity leave, from ten to fourteen weeks.
Attal says he is working on the subject
By estimating that “the minimum wage is not a decent salary”, the CEO of Michelin is putting the government’s back against the wall, whose Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, during his general policy declaration on January 30, had said he wanted to “de-emphasize ” France without giving any details to achieve this. Questioned Thursday evening on BFMTV about Michelin’s initiative, Gabriel Attal said he was working on “a system that makes it less expensive for bosses and employees to increase wages, especially when we are close to the minimum wage. I think that “The main thing is salary progression. When you start a career, you can start at minimum wage, the important thing is that your salary increases.”
Describing Florent Menegaux’s remarks as “very interesting”, the Prime Minister, while estimating that “obviously the standard of living is not the same depending on the territory where you live”, said he was unfavorable to the implementation in place of a regionalized minimum wage.
“Stop low-cost social policies”
Michelin’s initiative has, in any case, reactivated the debate. “A decent wage, I don’t know what that means. We know in economics that if we increase the minimum wage too much it destroys jobs and it turns against those concerned. There must be a connection between performance and salary through the notion of productivity”, argued Christian de Boissieu, vice-president of the Circle of Economists. “To de-emcardify, for the CFDT, is to stop the low-cost social policies of companies which are totally fed with public aid,” for her part judged yesterday Marylise Léon, general secretary of the CFDT.
According to the barometer of the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees), for the French, in 2022, a decent salary would be 1,983 euros per month, or approximately 42% more than a Minimum wage at 1,400 euros.
