The problem is not new, but it seems to have grown during the year 2021. Today, there are more professional branches in which the minimum wages, defined by collective agreements, are lower. at the minimum wage. These cases of ” noncompliance “ would even have reached a threshold “Historically high”, according to the last report of the expert committee on the minimum wage, published in early December 2021.
The phenomenon is largely the result of recent increases in the minimum wage, in particular that which took place in 1is October 2021. Many branch agreements have not been renegotiated since. Suddenly, these texts provide for salary scales whose basis has been “caught up”, or even exceeded by the minimum wage. In the poultry industries, there are thus “Twelve coefficients at–below the minimum wage “, to believe the CFDT federation of the food industry. In the last quarter of 2021, 108 branches had at least one level of remuneration below the minimum wage.
” It’s shocking “
The workers concerned cannot, however, be paid below the minimum wage, and companies also retain the option of being better off than collective agreements. But nothing prevents the bosses from settling on non-compliant grids. Such a situation poses a problem, especially as it increases “The number of employees and the payroll giving the right to reductions in social contributions on low wages”, as emphasized by Gilbert Cette, president of the group of experts on the minimum wage.
The system is likely to encourage “To non-virtue”, he adds, employers having every interest in maintaining obsolete grids in order to be able to pocket larger contribution exemptions. “It is shocking, because such behavior leads to loss of revenue for our social protection system, which can turn out to be significant”, he emphasizes.
Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the CGT, denounces this drift. For him, the minima provided for by collective agreements should “To be revalued automatically” each time the minimum wage is increased.
