“If the minimum wage increases, I am obliged to increase the others”: the increase in the minimum wage seen by employees and managers of SMEs

This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the report above. Click on the video to watch it in full. In a cookie factory, the boost to the minimum wage leaves some with a bitter taste.

Hired almost three years ago, Franck Agnero, inventory manager at La Fabrique Cookies, earns a little more than 1,500 euros net per month, just above the minimum wage. He is therefore not affected by today's announcement. Disappointment for this father of four children: “As long as the salary level does not increase, well, we are still mixed.

That's it, we still adapt..." "With the children we have, the schooling, the daily responsibilities, it's not easy... [...] At the end of the month, it's still difficult", underlines Franck. The Ile-de-France company employs 125 people. Among them, Solène Lefevre, 23, administrative assistant and reception assistant.

The young woman still lives with her parents, because it is impossible to find housing with her income barely above the current minimum wage. The solution for her: increase the value of low salaries at the same time as the minimum wage. “If the others below get a raise, well, then ask for a raise for my case.

I've been here for three years, so it's true that it would be recognition at the work level," said the young woman. For the founder of the company, the increase in the minimum wage will have an impact on the salaries of his employees. "If the minimum wage increases, I am obliged to increase the others.

For what ? Because everything is known in a small business. And if a manager of three people is ultimately paid the same salary as the person he manages, it doesn't work.

And he knows it and he's going to complain. So, we are obliged to increase the entire salary scale", underlines Alexis de Galembert, founding president of La Fabrique Cookies. "Why continue to always work more, more, more to earn 30 euros per month?

"In a delivery company in Montpellier (Hérault) which employs 80 employees, 65 are paid the minimum wage. And for the boss, Christophe Caset-Carricaburu, the only option to absorb the increase in the minimum wage would be to increase work rates, with a well-identified risk. "We will create turnover.

For what ? Because people will simply get tired of working. Why continue to always work more, more, more to earn 30 euros per month?

It's illogical", points out the Green Badge Services manager. Today, in France, nearly 2.1 million employees are paid the minimum wage.

Machine-translated from French