19 years of seniority to earn 8 euros more than the minimum wage: how the salary scales of civil servants have collapsed in 20 years

The government announced on Friday that it would raise the salaries of the lowest-income civil servants to compensate for the increase in the minimum wage decided on Monday, an announcement far from satisfying the unions who are unanimously calling for a strike and mobilization on November 17. How are civil servants paid? The remuneration of the majority of the 5.8 million public agents (civil servants, contractual and military) is made up of a basic salary, the base of remuneration called "index salary", and bonuses and allowances which constitute the "compensation" part of their pay and represents approximately a quarter of the total gross salary.

The amount of remuneration is determined by salary scales common to the entire public service (State, hospitals, communities). It is therefore the same for all public officials with identical seniority and position. Bonuses and allowances, which can help civil servants find accommodation, for example, are comparable to the variable part of remuneration in the private sector.

The average share of bonuses and allowances in the gross salary of civil servants is 25.4% across the entire civil service in 2024, according to an annual report from the administration. What is the "index point"? The index point is used to calculate the basic salary of civil servants, magistrates, soldiers and certain contractual agents.

Its value in euros is determined by the government, which has ruled out revaluing it in 2027 for the fourth consecutive year. In other words, no general increase in salaries. The basic remuneration is calculated by multiplying the value of the point by a so-called “increased” index, specific to each public official, and determined by the grids according to several criteria, such as seniority.

Why are we talking about "smicardization" of some of the agents? The expression reflects a phenomenon of “flattening” of salary scales. Theoretically, the more the agent progresses in his career, the higher he climbs the ladder, and the more he earns.

But if the minimum wage is indexed to inflation in France and mechanically follows the rise in prices, this is not the case for the value of the index point used to calculate the basic salary of civil servants. Since 2017, agents have only seen their index point revalued in 2022 (+3.5%) and 2023 (+1.5%). In the meantime, according to INSEE, cumulative inflation since 2017 will have reached 24.17% at the end of 2026.

The increases in the minimum wage combined with the almost systematic freezing of the value of the index point mean that the legal minimum wage is gradually catching up with the salaries at the bottom of the public sector salary scales. The consequence is twofold: the basic salary of a growing number of agents falls below the minimum wage, and those paid slightly above the minimum wage are also gradually caught up. After the increase in the minimum wage on Monday, 1.1 million agents were to receive a basic salary lower than the minimum wage and therefore benefit from compensation (differential compensation, Editor's note), because a civil servant cannot legally be paid less than the minimum wage.

After the increase in the lowest salaries announced on Friday, around 660,000 agents will continue to benefit from this compensation. What are the consequences for careers?

This reduction limits the salary progression of agents during their careers, whatever their category: A (senior or management jobs, the best paid), B (the intermediate level) and C (the lowest paid). “A category A agent (attached, engineer) on the first level of the grid was paid 315 euros above the minimum wage in 2006, 172 euros in 2023 and 48 euros today,” explains Johan Theuret, spokesperson for the Le Sens du service public collective. But be careful, this comparison only concerns the gross index salary, excluding bonuses and allowances which represents 25% of the total remuneration.

The difference of 48 euros also corresponds to the minimum wage revalued on December 1, 2026. For a category B agent (territorial technician, nurse, childcare assistant), six years of seniority are required, which corresponds to the 6th level, or approximately mid-career, to be paid 3.30 euros above the minimum wage, again according to the collective's estimates. For category C agents (cleaning agents, secretarial, maintenance, socio-cultural facilitator, etc.

), at the heart of current discussions, it is necessary to reach the 11th level, the highest of the grid, which corresponds to 19 years of seniority "to be above the minimum wage, of 8.22 euros", he continues. The collective's estimates were made before the government's announcements on Friday, but "they will not be substantially modified", assures Johan Theuret, the measures decided having "only a catch-up effect".

Machine-translated from French