Count, count everything, always count. “It’s painful to live like this” sighs this 36-year-old single mother, a versatile employee in a supermarket in eastern France (she did not wish to give her name). “When I go shopping, I scan my entire Shopping Cart before checking out, to make sure I can pay for it. I only put my 11-year-old daughter in the canteen four days a week, because I can’t afford five, and I pay monthly, because I can’t advance the term. My sofa, there, it’s broken, I patched up the file. I’m putting it aside but I won’t have enough before a year to buy myself one…”
And so on for all his expenses, starting with those for heating – his apartment is only equipped with electric radiators. “I only turn on two in the main room, and the one in my daughter’s bedroom to heat up before she goes to bed, but I turn it off at night. » Recently, she finally went on permanent contract, a release for her. But at thirty hours a week. “Thirty-five hours, I’d like to, but I’ve never been offered it, with us it’s only part-time contracts, often twenty-six or thirty hours, with schedules that change every day, which makes it very difficult to find another job on the side. »
Six years of CDD
All paid for, after six years of CDD in the same store, and other previous experiences, “a little more than the hourly minimum wage”, she believes, taking out the first payslip that comes to hand, dating from before the summer. “Here it is here, she reads, 10.26 euros gross per hour. » Or 1 cent above the minimum wage before autumn 2021.
But unlike his salary, the minimum wage is indexed to inflation. And has since been upgraded twice, to 1er October 2021 and on 1er January 2022: + 3.1% overall. It had also been increased automatically at 1er January 2021 (+0.99%), on 1er January 2020 (+1.2%). His salary, once a little above, has therefore been caught up. The December payslip attests to this: it rose, like the minimum wage, to 10.48 euros per hour. It will be 10.57 on that of the end of January.
“So now I’m on minimum wage?” » First she lets out a laugh. “Finally I laugh out loud… At 36, after years of working…” Then darkens: “To find myself at the bottom of the ladder… When I see all that I am asked to do…” His voice breaks. She apologizes, suppressing a sob. “I’m actually ashamed… Ashamed to be in this situation when I work every day. I promise you I’m not lazy… My parents never had much, they’re both retired and sick. Before, it was me who helped them. Now they are helping me…”