Germany has sharply increased its minimum wage without causing unemployment to jump: can France increase its minimum wage to 1,700 euros without damaging employment?
Faced with significant recruitment difficulties, German companies have managed to absorb a sharp increase in the minimum wage by reducing their margins and increasing their prices. This example cannot, however, be…
The unions leave Matignon disappointed. In a hurry to respond to the drop in wages compared to the rise in prices, the government will increase the minimum wage by around twenty euros net (+1.6%), to rise to 1,502 euros in December.
The unions demanded a more substantial increase (100 euros net for the CFDT and 150 euros net for the CGT). “We can increase the minimum wage provided that we do not harm employment,” replied Jean-Pierre Farandou, the Minister of Labor and Solidarity, in the Tribune Dimanche. “Raise it to 1.
700 euros net would destroy more than 230,000 jobs. (...
) At a time when unemployment is on the rise again and young people are having difficulty finding work, preserving employment is also a social responsibility", he continued, estimating that the rise in the cost of labor would lead to job destruction. To contradict him, the unions are notably highlighting contrary cases abroad. "In all our neighboring [countries] where the minimum wage has been increased, there has been a positive benefit on the economy.
Today, we are in recession, because people no longer consume, because wages are too low", said Sophie Binet, the general secretary of the CGT, on France Inter this Monday. The German demographic winter is changing the situation The German example is interesting in this regard. Since its creation in 2015, the minimum wage has in fact been greatly increased, to the point of well above the level of the French minimum wage.
In 2026, it was 2,343 euros gross per month, compared to 1,867 euros gross in France.
It should increase further on January 1, to 14.60 euros, an increase of 13.9% in two years. However, this has not translated into a significant increase in unemployment, even though growth has been very weak since 2019, according to the latest report from the Minimum Wage Commission. Companies responded by increasing their prices and reducing their margins.
However, the German case cannot be completely transposed to France. And this is partly explained by the demographics of Germany, where the working age population tends to be reduced, exposing employers to strong recruitment pressures. More than a million positions were vacant at the start of 2026, according to figures from the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB).
“Even when wages increase, companies face such recruitment pressures that they cannot lay off workers. Therefore, labor costs rise,” observes Eric Heyer, economist at the French Office for Economic Conditions (Ofce), interviewed by BFM Business. And, even with high net migration, the working population in Germany will decline by around 3.2 million people by the mid-2030s, according to Destatis forecasts.
Machine-translated from French
Not cross-checked yet
Only BFM Business reports this story so far. We show it as a single source until another newsroom confirms it.
- BFM Business10 Nov, 05:59
| Publisher BFM Business (established tier) | +76 |
| Detailed summary | +2 |
| Total | 78 |
Method: reports are grouped by the words of their headline and summary; each newsroom counts once; figures are read from the reports as published. Nothing here is written by an AI.