“We must “de-microcardiate” the France “launched the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, at the National Assembly, Tuesday January 30, during its general policy statement. “We cannot accept a France where many are condemned to remaining close to the minimum wage their entire career. » The share of employees on the minimum wage in France has in fact increased by almost 50% over the last two years: 12% in 2021, 14.5% in 2022 and 17.3% in 2023, according to the Dares figures.
This increase results from the combination of three phenomena:
- The minimum wage is automatically indexed to inflation. During a period of high inflation that we have been experiencing for more than two years, it increases sharply, while increases in other salaries have been on average lower than inflation (compensation for the loss of purchasing power has, however, sometimes been granted in the form of bonuses).
- Many professional sectors still have minimum salaries lower than the minimum wage, which means that all employees at the bottom of the scale automatically find themselves on the minimum wage.
- Exemptions from social security contributions on low salaries (up to 1.6 minimum wage) discourage employers from granting salary increases. As the Prime Minister clarified, “today, to increase the income of an employee on the minimum wage by 100 euros, the employer will have to pay 238 euros more.” In addition, according to the CAF, a minimum wage employee who receives an increase of 100 euros net per month sees their activity bonus reduced by 117 euros. Neither the employer nor the employee therefore has an interest in the salary increasing. This is called a low-wage trap.
Fight against the low-wage trap
As a result, many employees have no prospect of progression throughout their career and have a feeling of being downgraded.
But, however, we must not forget the two advantages of this system:
- The automatic indexation of the minimum wage avoids the impoverishment of employees, an automaticity which does not exist in most of the 28 OECD states (out of 36) which have a minimum wage. Demicardization must therefore not involve removing or reducing the indexation of the minimum wage to inflation.
- Exemptions from social security contributions on low salaries help employers hire people with little or no qualifications. Indeed, one of the problems of our country lies in the fact that there are still around 110,000 young people who leave the school system each year without any qualifications. Reducing these exemptions would have a detrimental effect on employment.
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