Increase in the minimum wage, reductions in charges for businesses... What to remember from the government's announcements at the end of the social conference

"The government's duty is to commit to realistic and achievable promises." At the end of the social conference organized in Matignon on Monday, November 9, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu made several announcements to try to calm social anger. Also read • Direct Social Conference: the government announces an increase in the minimum wage of 1.6% to bring it to 1,502 euros net on December 1 Recalling the constrained budgetary and political framework in which it finds itself, six months before the presidential election, the head of government nevertheless proposed "solutions", promising that it was not a question of "a balance for all accounts" but that this "open[ed] a sequence of discussion".

Franceinfo summarizes the measures announced. The minimum wage increased by 1.6% The minimum wage will be increased by 1.6% on December 1, according to the Minister of Labor Jean-Pierre Farandou. The increase will be 0.6% at the initiative of the government, in addition to its automatic revaluation of 1% due to inflation.

The minimum wage will reach around 1,502 euros per month, almost 24 euros more than today. This is "the second largest increase in 20 years", said Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, defending a "boost" which "is not just symbolic". “I think we should not despise” this increase decided by the government, a first since 2012, he added.

The head of government also believes that it will "not be a source of job destruction", as employers fear. Also read: Call for testimonials Are you an employee paid the minimum wage? Tell us about your daily life Marylise Léon, the general secretary of the CFDT, considered that an increase in the minimum wage was "a good thing" while judging this increase of 1.6% "insufficient".

“The government has only announced crumbs to us,” denounced Sophie Binet, the general secretary of the CGT, noting that the minimum wage should automatically “increase by 18 euros on January 1.” “A helping hand of 5 euros is a kilo of tomatoes. (...

) Five balls and not even a March", she mocked. "We are providing a bad response to a real problem", also reacted Patrick Martin, the president of Medef, on franceinfo. The employers' leader recalls that there have been three increases in the minimum wage in 2026, due to inflation, and that "no one talks about employment, investment and growth anymore", which he considers to be "the real answer" to the loss of purchasing power of the French.

Machine-translated from French