2023-09-28 03:30:14
Two years of inflation have put the French wage mechanics to the test and revealed the fundamental role of the minimum wage, the only wage indexed to the consumer price index, in the overall dynamic.
With its advantages: minimum wage workers are the only ones who have not experienced a loss of purchasing power – the salary level of the rest of the French has not, “caught up” inflation only in the second quarter of 2023, following a year and a half of stalling. And with its side effects, on low wages and state finances. These unexpected consequences should be at the heart of the social conference, promised by Emmanuel Macron to political party leaders in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) and expected in mid-October.
As required by law, which provides for an increase during the year as soon as inflation increases by at least 2% compared to the last increase in the minimum wage, the minimum wage has been increased six times since October 2021, the last time on 1is May, to reach 1,747.20 euros gross monthly.
A strong feeling of downgrade
“The problem is that it caused an increasingly pronounced decline in salaries at the bottom of the scale,” underlines Luc Mathieu, national secretary of the CFDT. As automatic increases in the minimum wage are necessarily faster than those for other salaries, due to the time required for negotiation, more and more workers have seen their progression in terms of seniority or responsibility erased. Enough to provoke a strong feeling of downgrading.
At the start of 2022, the minimum wage concerned 2.5 million employees, or 14.5% of them (compared to 12% a year earlier). And half of private sector employees received less than 2,012 euros net per month in 2021.
To avoid this “settling”the Communist Party and La France insoumise, as well as unions like the CGT, FO and the CFE-CGC, have been demanding for months the indexation of all salaries to inflation. “Such a demand would be inconceivable in other countries, where unions believe that wage increases are their prerogative, wonders Gilbert Cet, professor of economics at Neoma Business School and president of the group of experts on the minimum wage. It is up to the social partners to take charge. »
Responsible for setting minimum wages, or “conventional minimums”, which must apply according to qualifications or seniority to companies sharing the same collective agreement, the professional branches have not managed to save their grids from drowning. During the last revaluation of the minimum wage in May, 147 professional branches out of 171 saw their minimums exceeded. Four months later, 64 of them are still in “non-compliance”.
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