Why the group of experts recommends not giving a boost to the minimum wage on January 1

Since its creation in 2008, the group of experts responsible for advising the government on monitoring the minimum wage has always recommended refraining from any push in favor of the minimum wage. The report for the year 2024, published this Thursday, November 28, is no exception to the rule. A consistency which has the gift of making the unions bristle. « We don't need a committee of experts, if it's always to say that we don't need a helping hand »Sophie Binet, number one of the CGT, already lost her temper last year. His organization even went so far as to immediately publish an article with the evocative name, “To put an end to the experts on the non-increase of the minimum wage”.

However, it is simplistic to summarize the work, 170 pages long, of the five specialists who make up the group, to a repetition of refusals. Like every year, this choice is the result of a long investigation into the state of the French labor market and the potential consequences of an increase in the minimum wage. And this 2024 vintage is full of arguments to encourage economists to be cautious.