When and by how much to raise the minimum wage? The two questions are "on the table" for the government

On the eve of the mobilization on Thursday, November 5, with calls to demonstrate and strike in the public and private sectors, negotiations and consultations, led by the Minister of Labor, are underway for a possible increase in the minimum wage. Two avenues are being studied by the government: increasing the minimum wage from next month instead of waiting until January 1st and whether an additional boost should be given, that is to say an overall increase above the level of inflation. Also read Is France the European country that has changed its minimum wage the least in ten years, as Yannick Jadot says?

The Minister of the Economy Roland Lescure confirmed this on Wednesday with our colleagues at RMC. But he recognizes that it won't be enough. “The two subjects, knowing how much and when, are on the table and we know that we must be able to respond to these demands in the days to come,” he assures.

But that's not enough. In what we call compulsory annual salary negotiations, we must integrate, particularly for companies that can afford it, the fact that the issue of purchasing power requires an increase in salaries. So the idea of ​​this three-way negotiation - the unions, employers' organizations and the government - is to ask ourselves what each of us can do to stick together and ensure that we move forward together.

"The unions hope to obtain rapid resultsPrecisely, the unions are asking to open a discussion with the employers to force the branches and companies to negotiate on salary scales. They want in particular that the exemptions from contributions be removed for the companies which refuse negotiations. In the meantime, the unions which intend to maintain the pressure of Thursday in the streets.

“The door is ajar, we have to succeed in opening it wide,” explains a CGT executive. The union hopes to see a lot of people in the streets on Thursday to push the government to act very quickly on wages. “The government will be able to present measures around November 5,” Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou also announced on Tuesday.

It remains to be seen how far it can go in a context, as we know, of budgetary tensions. The CGT is demanding an increase of 150 euros in the minimum wage, a 10% increase in the index point for civil servants and an indexation of all salaries to prices. The CFDT is asking for 100 euros more per month for the minimum wage.

As for France's third union, Force Ouvrière, it is calling for the minimum wage to reach 80% of the median salary, or between 100 and 150 euros more per month.

Machine-translated from French