An exceptional bonus of a maximum amount of 6,000 euros, exempt from income tax and social security contributions. In theory, the revamped Macron bonus is excellent news for the purchasing power of employees. Except that it raises many questions.
Why this bonus?
Macron bonus or exceptional purchasing power bonus (PEPA): whatever its name, the original principle is that of an emergency, one-off measure, in the face of the Yellow Vests crisis. Version PEPA 2019 : a bonus of 1,000 euros for employees paid up to 3,600 euros net per month, the equivalent of 3 Smic, but only in companies willing to distribute it and on condition of paying it before March 2019.
Initially, the collection PEPA 2020 is less generous. Except that at the end of winter 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic arose. The “planed PEPA 2020” becomes the “reboosted PEPA Covid”. Even better than the “Yellow Vests collection”: 1,000 euros totally tax-free for employees and companies, this time with a bonus of 2,000 euros in the event of a profit-sharing agreement, as well as for so-called “2nd line” employees “. In the midst of a health crisis, the payment deadline has been extended to the end of August 2020… then to the end of December 2020.
Rebelote in 2021. First, nothing. Then, in the midst of a “social dialogue conference”, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced in mid-March that he would resuscitate the Macron bonus, collection PEPA 2021-2022, since its payment straddles two years. The “Macron 2022 bonus” is indeed still being distributed, since June 1, 2021. Deadline for paying it to employees: March 31, 2022. The conditions are almost identical to those of the PEPA 2020: 1,000 euros totally tax-exempt for the same employees paid up to 3 Smic, without condition. But also 2,000 euros, unconditionally, in companies with fewer than 50 employees, for the “2nd line against the Covid”, and in the event of profit-sharing for the largest companies.
In the end, according to the government, more than 15 million people have benefited from this bonus since 2019 for an average amount of the bonus amounting to 542 euros.
A new Macron bonus to come
But this device will finally be perpetuated, tripled and reorganized. As part of the purchasing power bill aimed at curbing the impact of inflation on household budgets, Parliament has just given the green light to candidate Macron’s campaign promise. Until the end of 2023, companies will be able to pay their employees paid below 3 Smic a bonus of 3,000 euros, or even 6,000 euros if a profit-sharing agreement has been concluded. This premium, renamed Value Share Bonus (VSP)will be net of taxes.
From 2024, the PPV will be open to all employees under the same conditions. She will be exempt from social contributions but subject to income tax. The premium can be paid in one or more instalments. “To prevent it from replacing salary increases, the senators limited its payment to 4 instalments (once per quarter) while advancing the date of its payment to July 1, 2022”, explains the government.
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Boost, windfall effect or disguised employee savings?
But this Macron bonus, if it has benefited many employees, is not free from criticism. The first is signed by Insee, which points to a possible “windfall effect” from the 2019 bonus: “even if the bonus cannot replace salary increases, nor to bonuses provided for by a salary agreement or by the employment contract, establishments would undoubtedly have paid, in a different form, at least part of the amount of this bonus in the absence of this measure”. In short, the Macron bonus does not replace other remuneration… but indirectly, it sometimes makes it possible to don’t raise the salary. Too bad for the employee: an uncertain bonus would thus take the place of a fixed and lasting increase…
During the parliamentary debate this summer, the left alliance Nupes also estimated that “bonuses come to replace salaries”. Several elected officials have also pointed to a “willingness to circumvent the financing of Social Security and pension funds” via this bonus. “It is the concrete translation of the neoliberal ideology (…) always harmful for employees, always profitable for employers”, deplores the president of the PS group in the Senate Patrick Kanner. ” A shovel hit to our social protection system for his colleague Laurence Rossignol.
“By paying only net remuneration and closing all social rights – unemployment or old age coverage in particular – the bonuses shape an artificial deficit in the Social Security accounts”, denounce the Insoumis deputies for whom the Macron bonus is a “ smoking premium “.
” 84% of employees will not receive anything “, denounces for his part Fabien Gay (CRCE with a communist majority). “It is not by tripling the authorized amount that we will triple the amount paid,” says ecologist Raymonde Poncet Monge.
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Second reviewshared by most employee unions: “its optional payment by the employers is not up to the challenges, ”grunts the Unsa, in a projection similar to that of the CGT. Translation: this annual bonus depends solely on at the goodwill of the boss “, according to the left alliance Nupes.
An unequal premium?
Third downside. This Macron bonus is supposed to target the middle classes and be egalitarian within the company. But, in the same company, its amount perhaps either “uniform”, either be “modulated” according to several criteria: remuneration, level of classification, duration of effective presence and duration of work. In short, a mode of modulation which resembles that of profit-sharing or participation…
” This is always welcome for the employee! “, explained at the end of March Hubert Clerbois, president of the firm specializing in company savings and social protection EPS Partners. Before being much more skeptical about the merits of this device: “It was originally a reaction to a crisis. However, companies already had participation and profit-sharing schemes. From time to time, in a context of crisis, this bonus was able to encourage companies to pay money without too many constraints. But it was not meant to last. »
This Macron bonus “is not intended to replace profit-sharing or participation! “replied Laurent Saint-Martin, the former budget rapporteur at the Assembly” We create tools that are more accessible to everyone. Because all companies do not have the facility to set up participation, profit-sharing or employee share ownership. The sustainability of the PEPA and its increase will allow all levels of companies to respect this profit sharing rule. »
For the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, this Macron bonus is “an additional remuneration which is extremely appreciable for all employees in these difficult times”.