The Prime Minister announced a 2% increase in the minimum wage from November 1.
Refocusing operation. When Gabriel Attal made purchasing power one of the cornerstones of his policy, Michel Barnier focused on labor income. “We will increase the minimum wage of 2 % from November 1, in anticipation of the date of January 1», He announced as part of his general policy speech. The increase will increase the minimum wage from 1766.92 euros gross per month to 1802.25 euros gross. Every January 1, the level of the minimum wage changes according to inflation and the gain in purchasing power of the lowest-income households.
Michel Barnier therefore preempts the calculation and offers those interested two additional months of increase. An essentially symbolic social marker in times of budgetary scarcity. The minimum wage being indexed to inflation, it has already been vigorously revalued since the 2022 price surge: increase of 0.9% in January 2022, of 2.65% in May 2022, of 2.01% in August 2022, by 1.81% in January 2023 and finally by 1.3% in January 2024. The purchasing power of people on the minimum wage has thus been maintained in the inflationary crisis.
On the other hand, these increases mechanically expanded the contingent of employees paid the minimum wage. Nearly one in five private sector employees (17%) are now on the minimum wage. This is the price to pay for a societal choice: the priority given for forty years to the revaluation of low-skilled work and low wages. Before Michel Barnier, many prime ministers had already given in to the pleasure, much less reasonable, of the “boost” of the minimum wage, an increase uncorrelated with inflation.
Load reductions
So that these boosts do not put too much of a strain on the profitability of companies, Édouard Balladur imagined in the 1990s taking charge of part of the employer contributions on low salaries. The system has continued to grow, to the point that today there are almost no charges for the lowest salaries. “ Our cost reduction system slows down the rise in wages above the minimum wage », recognized Michel Barnier.
The economists Antoine Bozzio and Étienne Wassmer were tasked by the previous majority with thinking about the relationship between wages, labor costs and activity bonuses in order to fight against low-wage traps. The dissolution delayed the publication of their report. Michel Barnier could put it back on the agenda.
The Prime Minister finally mentioned, without giving further details but invoking “the premonitory declaration of General de Gaulle», the path to strengthening participation and interest. Mechanisms which benefit in this government from a dedicated minister, Marie-Agnès Poussier-Winsback.
