Up to 30 euros net more per month: the minimum wage should increase by 1.5 to 2% according to the boss of the CFTC

The increase in the minimum wage which could be announced at the end of the social conference in progress Monday morning in Matignon would be between "1.5% and 2%", according to the president of the CFTC Cyril Chabanier, against around 1.2% if we stick to the current method of calculation. This increase, which could take place in advance from December 1, would include the indexation of the minimum wage on prices which otherwise would take place automatically on January 1, but also the first "boost" to improve its purchasing power since July 2012. On Friday, the Minister of Labor Jean-Pierre Farandou considered it "important" to try to "cross the bar" of 1.

500 euros net for the monthly minimum wage, currently 1,477.93 euros. “We are still negotiating the amount of the boost, between 1.5% and 2%,” declared the trade unionist before the start of this conference which brings together employer and union leaders at the initiative of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who convened it after the day of mobilization on Thursday, November 5, which brought together 575 people.

000 and 1.5 million people. At the current level of 1,477.93 euros net per month, an increase in the minimum wage of between 1.5% and 2% would represent a monthly gain of around 22 to 30 euros net for a full-time employee.

The minimum wage would thus increase to 1,500.10 euros net in the first case and 1,507.49 euros net in the second, subject to a proportional change from net to gross.

In both hypotheses, the symbolic threshold of 1,500 euros net mentioned by the Minister of Labor would therefore be crossed. Over a full year, this revaluation would represent a gain in purchasing power of 266 to 355 euros net for the employees concerned.

“A kind of carrot stick on exemptions” Cyril Chabanier also mentioned “a change in policy on exemptions granted to businesses, where there would perhaps be for the first time, let’s say, a small conditionality that could be put in place”. “We will have to have a kind of carrot stick on the exemptions (from contributions) to tell them (the employers): If you move, you have exos, if you don't move, there are no more,” he explained. All unions are demanding in particular that professional branches and companies with salary scale levels below the minimum wage, as well as the employer State, comply more quickly each time the minimum wage increases, so as not to cause an increase in the proportion of employees paid the minimum wage.

But the problem is not limited to salary, for Cyril Chabanier: "We are mainly asking for flash negotiations so that within three weeks, we can have real negotiations in the branches". “I remind you that more than one or two branches have not renegotiated their salary scale for more than 10 years. So that too must change.

Machine-translated from French