The Senate approved on Tuesday November 19, 2024 a very sensitive measure to reduce reductions in employer contributions, which should make it possible to free up three billion euros to the detriment of employers, i.e. one billion less than envisaged by the government in its draft Social Security budget.
After several hours of intense debate on this reform which bristles the employers and the Macronist camp, the upper house, dominated by the right and the centrists, adopted an intermediate measure compared to the government's proposal, which initially aimed for a return of four billion euros to finance Social Security.
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Greater effort on the highest salaries
The measure, already adopted in recent days in committee, intends preserve employment
for salaries around the minimum wage, for which reductions in employer contributions would remain unchanged. And in return proposes a greater effort on the highest salaries, particularly for the year 2026.
For salaries between 1 and 1.3 SMIC, the government initially wanted to increase employer contributions by two percentage points in 2025 and another two points in 2026.
But the measure – likely to destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs
according to Medef and 50,000 according to the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE) – has sparked an outcry within the government camp itself.
The system had also been removed in the National Assembly, but the debates could not be completed before the text was transmitted to the Senate.
A joint committee must reach a compromise
Labor Minister Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet judged extremely interesting
the senatorial majority's proposal for 2025, believing that it would make it possible to limit side effects or even neutralize them with regard to low wages
. She was nevertheless unfavorable to the Senate's proposal for the year 2026, judging the effort too brutal for businesses.
The final terms of this flammable measure will nevertheless depend on upcoming discussions during a joint committee bringing together deputies and senators, scheduled for November 27 according to several parliamentary sources, to reach a compromise.
These exchanges promise to be very uncertain, due to the standoff engaged by the Renaissance deputies with the government of Michel Barnier. The government has already let go in recent days by saying it is ready to halve the efforts required of businesses.
But the Senate did not go that far: We have to break the dynamic
increase in reductions in charges, which today amount to 80 billion euros, insisted the centrist general rapporteur Élisabeth Doineau. We can't continue like this.
The few Renaissance parliamentarians elected to the Senate tried in vain to obtain the total removal of the measure: Employment cannot be a budgetary adjustment variable
launched Senator Xavier Iacovelli.
