The Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity Catherine Vautrin assured Wednesday morning that the minimum wage would not be abolished, the day after Gabriel Attal’s general policy speech which announced the “de-emphasis” of society. “The minimum wage is a guarantee for our fellow citizens of a minimum wage,” recalled the Minister of Labor on BFMTV/RMC.
Make “work a tool of emancipation”
Asked about a possible plan to abolish the minimum wage, Catherine Vautrin replied: “Not at all”. “The desire today is to allow our fellow citizens to progress. Who doesn’t want, as soon as they work, to see their income increase? The subject is to help show that work generates income,” she argued.
The government wishes to “look at what these charges are (…) which somewhere immediately remove the net effect (of) salary increases” of those who are paid the minimum wage. And, “on the other hand, for those who are just above (the minimum wage), look if the envelope announced yesterday (Tuesday) of 2 billion euros” can allow “a tax cut for this category,” continued the minister. The government’s stated objective is to ensure “that work is indeed a tool for emancipation”, she further declared.
“102 professions affected today” by minimums below the minimum wage
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Tuesday a reform on low wages, to “‘de-microcardiate’ France”, during his general policy declaration to the National Assembly, without providing details. As of Tuesday evening, the leader of the CGT, Sophie Binet, castigated the Prime Minister’s comments to AFP: “First he should revise his figures since he explained that the French minimum wage was higher than the minimum wages of our neighbors. The French minimum wage is lower than the Belgian, German or Swiss minimum wage.
Gabriel Attal also promised to act so that professional branches which continue to pay below the minimum wage “raise these remunerations”, excluding “no measure” to achieve rapid results. The Minister of Labor recalled on Wednesday that “102 professions are affected today” by minimums below the SMIC, “because as soon as there is an increase in the SMIC, it automatically exceeds them”.
To correct these branches, Catherine Vautrin wants to rely on “a European provision which has been voted on” and which must be transposed in 2026. France will transpose it “this year, that is to say on January 1, 2025” , she added, to allow branch controls.