Help or not? Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou “hopes” to be able to make announcements on the minimum wage “around November 5”

+1 or +10%? Help or not? This Tuesday, November 3, in front of the deputies of the National Assembly, the Minister of Labor Jean-Pierre Farandou said he hoped to be able to make announcements to "restart the wage dynamic in our country" around Thursday, November 5, the day of an inter-union mobilization for wages.

“I hope that with all the partners, we will be able to converge, I hope that the government, around November 5, will be able to present measures likely to restart the wage dynamic in our country,” declared Jean-Pierre Farandou during the question session to the government in the National Assembly. In recent days, the Minister of Labor has received union and employer organizations on this subject. He indicated that he had laid with them "the foundations of software", including work on the minimum wage - a subject which is "not taboo" but for which the government must be attentive to the consequences for "employment" of an increase.

Towards an anticipated increase on December 1st Among the options on the table, the revaluation of the minimum wage, normally scheduled for January 1st, brought forward by one month, i.e. December 1st. Added to this would perhaps be a boost granted by the government, which divides the social partners and particularly angers employers. And for good reason, the stakeholders in the discussions of the last few days assume that, given the galloping inflation of recent months, the mechanical increase in the minimum wage would already be around 0.8 to 1%.

Which is insufficient for the unions - the CFDT demanding an increase in the minimum wage of 100 euros net, the CGT and FO even demanding 150 euros more. Which would amount to +7%, or even +10% revaluation. For its part, the CFTC is more moderate and hopes for an increase of 2% in the legal minimum wage, or at least +1.6%.

The expectations of the unions, if they are well considered by the government, would in any case imply that the latter grants this famous boost. If it does take place, it seems unlikely that it will satisfy the most demanding unions. Especially since the government would risk alienating employers, who recall that the minimum wage was already increased by 2.41% last June, a mechanical increase triggered by inflation which had crossed the symbolic threshold of 2% in May, under the effect of the surge in energy prices.

This increase is already added to that of January 1, 2026, of +1.18%, employers' organizations fear an overall increase in the minimum wage of more than 5% during this year. This is a more sustained development than for salaries beyond the legal minimum, for which the observed increases are around 2%. Raising salary scales The Minister of Labor also spoke this Tuesday of work to be carried out, according to him, within the professional sectors, with conventional minimums sometimes lower than the minimum wage "which must be raised through negotiation", and obligatory annual negotiations in companies.

Machine-translated from French