“Accelerated minimum wage”: after the revaluation of the minimum wage on June 1, 70% of professional sectors will have lower minimums

Of the 179 professional branches monitored by the Ministry of Labor, 126 will have a minimum lower than the minimum wage on June 1. Please note, this does not mean that employees will be paid below the minimum wage (that would be illegal) but that their remuneration will not increase. The unions denounce an “accelerated minimum wage”.

Once the increase in the minimum wage comes into force on Monday, 70% of professional sectors will have a salary scale starting below the minimum wage, the Ministry of Labor said on Wednesday, with unions calling for rapid salary increases. Of the 179 professional branches monitored by the ministry, 126 will have a minimum lower than the minimum wage on June 1, the ministry indicated, during a meeting of the national salary monitoring committee with trade union and employer organizations. The branches concerned are supposed to launch negotiations with social partners within 45 days to comply.

The only salary indexed to inflation, which exceeded 2% in April due to rising energy costs, the minimum wage will increase on Monday by 2.41%, or a little less than 35 euros net per month. It is prohibited in France to pay an employee below the minimum wage, but in sectors in which one or more levels of the salary scale fall below its amount, employees can see their remuneration stagnate for years at the minimum wage, despite their progress in seniority or qualification.

“Accelerated minimum wage”

According to its own count (including additional branches notably in agriculture, construction and the maritime sector), the CGT counts almost 80% of 230 professional branches now with minimums below the minimum wage. “A scandalous proportion,” denounced Thomas Vacheron, confederal secretary of the CGT.

“When prices rise, wages must rise too. This is the case of the inter-professional minimum wage. This must be the case for all salaries,” he said, asking for indexation to inflation of all salaries.

The CGT demands, like the CFDT, the leading French trade union centre, that the branches concerned be obliged to comply quickly and that salary negotiations by branch be reopened. “We have the impression that the situation is getting worse from year to year and that we are generally experiencing an accelerated minimum wage rate,” said the national secretary of the CFDT Luc Mathieu, present at the meeting.