“There remain professional branches in our country in which the minimums are lower than the minimum wage, this is not acceptable and this will be the subject of rapid negotiations,” added the head of government, who cited among his five priority projects that of the “standard of living of the French”.
“In addition, it has now been shown that our system for reducing charges slows down the rise in wages above the minimum wage: we will see it again,” he continued.
With the increase in the minimum wage announced “in advance” by Mr. Barnier, the monthly net minimum wage would thus be increased to around 1,426 euros net, compared to 1,398.70 euros currently.
In France, the minimum wage is the only salary indexed to inflation. It benefits each year from a mechanical increase on January 1st and revaluations also occur during the year as soon as inflation exceeds 2%.
The government can choose to go beyond the automatic increase with a “nudge”, but there has not been one since 2012. In this case, the Prime Minister announced an “anticipation”.
The minimum wage has increased eight times since January 2021, including four times during the year due to inflation. The last revaluation dates back to 1is January.
The unions, who met the Prime Minister last week, include wage increases among their demands. The CGT, FSU and Solidaires demonstrate on Tuesday for the government to “respond to social demands”, particularly on these salary issues.
“Low-wage traps”
The number of employees paid the minimum wage has increased significantly in France. At 1is January 2023, 17.3% of employees were affected.
As the minimum wage increases faster than the rest of wages, certain sector minimums are caught up. The branches are thus regularly called to order by the government.
Exemptions, maximum at the minimum wage level, introduced to support employment, are today accused by certain economists of slowing down wage progression by creating “low wage traps”. This is why Mr. Barnier intends to review the contribution reduction system.
