Unemployment, increase in the minimum wage, salaries... Sophie Binet's "8h30 franceinfo"

Unemployment, increase in the minimum wage, salaries... Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, answers questions from Camille Girerd and Simon Le Baron, November 10, 2026 on franceinfo. For the first time since the start of 2025, the unemployment rate in France slowed down in the third quarter: it remained almost stable, standing at 8.2% of the active population.

It even slowed down slightly, minus 0.1 point compared to the second quarter. A "slight" improvement, comments Sophie Binet, which was primarily linked to the international situation [...] The improvement in France was much less significant than elsewhere.

What we have seen for two years is a significant deterioration of the industrial fabric. The minimum wage will be increased by 1.6% to 1,502 euros on December 1. Sophie Binet criticized the government for "a yellow coin operation."

“It’s not up to par with the explosion in the cost of living and needs,” laments Sophie Binet. The CGT demanded a 10% increase. She also asks the government to intervene in salary negotiations, because "with this 1.6% boost", "164 branches out of 200", or "14 million employees", will have minimum salaries "lower than the minimum wage".

“The government has been telling us for three years: we are going to force the branches to negotiate. Result: there have never been so many branches with minimum wages lower than the minimum wage. The only thing that makes these negotiations work is the balance of power, mobilization and pressure,” insists Sophie Binet.

“We need two things: real sanctions and real threats from the government, for the moment it is more than vague, and a mobilization of employees. This is why we are calling for a new day of strike and demonstrations on November 17.”

Machine-translated from French