How many times has the minimum wage been increased voluntarily by governments?

From 830 euros on January 1, 2001 to 1,502 euros this December 1 with the announcement of the 1.6% increase in the minimum wage in order to respond to the social anger expressed in the demonstrations in France. In twenty-five years, the minimum wage (smic) has almost doubled.

However, despite their recurrence, these increases have rarely been voluntarily decided by successive governments. Indeed, the law provides that every January 1, the hourly minimum wage is corrected according to inflation. This also provides for systematic revaluations during the year as soon as the consumer price index increases by at least 2% compared to the index which served as the basis for the previous setting of the minimum wage.

This is what happened on June 1 before a revaluation of 2.41%, but also several times with post-Covid inflation, in October 2021, then May and August 2022. Hollande yes, no “boost” under Sarkozy In the share of the 1.6% increase on December 1, 0.6 points go beyond the inflation observed since the beginning of the summer. This is when we talk about “boosts”, these revaluations which go beyond the correction of inflation.

But these are rare. To find traces of a previous “boost”, we must go back to the day after the election of François Hollande. On July 1, 2012, the minimum wage increased by 2%, including 1.4 points for inflation.

It was then worth 1,118.29 euros for a 35 hour trip. Previously, we must span the five-year term of Nicolas Sarkozy, to go back to the end of Jacques Chirac's mandates.

It is then July 1, 2006, Dominique de Villepin is Prime Minister, and the minimum wage increases by 3.05%, with a “boost” limited to 0.3 points. Return to the Franc For the continuation of the voluntary increases, we must leave the euro and return to the Franc. The Jospin government, in full cohabitation under Jacques Chirac, raised the minimum wage by 4.05% in July 2001, including 0.3 points beyond the strict application of the law.

This article then approaches archeology and leaves the 21st century to find an increase that can be described as significant excluding inflation and the political context was to match. We are in 1997, and Jacques Chirac has just lost his bet to dissolve the National Assembly and sees the socialist Lionel Jospin settling in Matignon. Following this change of majority, the minimum wage is then increased by 4% with inflation of around 1%.

The gross gain for employees amounted to 3%, still less than the 10% increase decreed by Mitterand in 1981.

Machine-translated from French