Salary scales that start below the minimum wage in many sectors: the government wants to hit companies in the wallet, but the sanction could be contrary to the Constitution

How can we increase the purchasing power of the French without limiting ourselves to employees paid the minimum wage? This is the whole headache for the government, which is continuing negotiations with the social partners before the mobilization planned for Thursday. Because an increase in the minimum wage, as the executive is considering by the end of the year, would not automatically benefit employees paid just above, with the risk of seeing ever more French people paid the minimum wage.

The government wants in particular to tackle a situation which may seem aberrant: according to the unions, 122 professional branches currently have conventional minimums lower than the minimum wage. How is this possible? In France, the legal minimum wage is set by the State, but each professional branch also negotiates its own minimum wages, which vary according to the qualifications, seniority or responsibilities of the employees.

These scales are supposed to guarantee progression in remuneration over the course of one’s career. But when the minimum wage increases, part of these minimums find themselves below the minimum wage. This does not mean that employees in the sectors concerned are paid below the minimum wage, that is illegal, but it crushes salaries and prevents career advancement.

The first rungs of the grid can find themselves caught up in the minimum wage, to the point that a beginner employee and another with more experience are ultimately paid at the same level. To avoid this crushing of salaries, the government is pushing professional sectors to review all of their salary scales. But the employers are putting on the brakes.

Companies assure that they have not yet absorbed the previous increase in the minimum wage, of 2.41% last June, and fear a further increase in their salary costs. The phenomenon is particularly marked during periods of high inflation. In May 2022, after several successive increases in the minimum wage, 146 of the 171 main professional branches monitored by the Ministry of Labor had at least one minimum lower than the legal salary.

Two months later, there were already only 112, thanks to the salary agreements concluded in the meantime. The situation eventually improved but it took almost three years to go from 146 to only 20 branches with minimums below the minimum wage. Exemptions from reduced contributions to put pressure To force the branches to negotiate more quickly, the government is now considering activating a provision passed last year, but the terms of application of which remain to be specified.

Machine-translated from French