SMIC employees have never been so numerous in France

2023-11-30 19:00:11

Published on Nov 30, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.

Inflation is falling but still remains high. Consequence: the minimum wage will experience a new sustained increase on 1^is next January, the eighth in three years, the latest dating back to 1^is may. We will know the exact figure in mid-December, but in its annual report the group of independent experts responsible for informing the government estimates it at 1.7%. As in previous years, it excludes any political boost that would add to the automatic revaluation.

The legal minimum hourly wage would then increase from 11.52 to 11.71 euros gross (1,747.20 to 1,777 euros gross per month full-time). This will directly benefit an unprecedented number of employees in the private sector outside agriculture. There were 3.1 million in this case during the revaluation of 1^is last January, according to a figure from the Ministry of Labor revealed by the report. That is more than one employee in six, 17.3% exactly. This is 5.3 percentage points more than in 2021. Or even 1 point more than the previous record from 2005.

” Unprecedented “

“More than 17%, this is unprecedented since at least the beginning of the 1990s and it can still increase,” confirms the president of the group of experts, Gilbert Cet. And to underline the human management difficulties that this poses in certain companies, especially very small ones, when an experienced senior is caught up in terms of salary by a young hire.

If we reach such a level, it is paradoxically thanks to the protective effect of the formulas for revaluing the legal minimum wage, since they compensate for inflation, even if this implicitly underlines the weight of low wages in the remuneration pyramid. In France.

In fact, each time the hourly minimum wage increases, even more so if the increases outside the 1^is January follows one another as has been the case since 2021, certain conventional minimum remuneration levels are found below. The professional branches are then obliged to update their grids. At the last count, around forty are still in a situation of non-compliance since 1^is May, 11 of which are particularly monitored by the Ministry of Labor.

+13,5 %

The cumulative increase in the SMIC since the automatic revaluation of January 1, 2021 excluded

The problem is that if the minimums below the revalued minimum wage are increased, those who are caught up only evolve gradually, despite the salary increases negotiated in the companies. Hence a drop in wages to the level of the legal minimum – an “unprecedented crush” for Gilbert Cela – which explains why more and more employees are directly affected.

Overrepresented women

“The extent of the SMIC increases is one of the factors explaining the evolution of the share of beneficiaries […] as well as the change in the composition of the structure of employees according to their salary level, the distribution of salary levels in relation to branch minimums, or even the calendars and contents of the negotiations of these branch minimums”, summarize the experts in their report.

Among the 3.1 million employees affected by the revaluation of 1^is January 2023, 57.3% were women, who nevertheless represent less than half of the private sector workforce. That’s 2 percentage points more in one year. This increase is particularly notable in companies with 10 or more employees.

Part-time

The increase is particularly notable in services (+3 points) with almost 20% of employees concerned, in construction (+2 points) at 11.1% and in industry (+1.5 points) at 8.4 %.

The share of beneficiaries remains much higher for part-time employees, at 38.3% compared to 12.4% for those who work full-time, “to the extent that those concerned are more frequently paid close to the minimum wage” .

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