While tens of thousands of French demonstrated Thursday, January 27 to demand better wages and more purchasing power, the Minister of Labor assures that the government has allowed employees paid the Smic to receive a thirteenth, see a fourteenth month of pay. It is not that simple.
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This is an argument repeated for months by members of the government, which the Minister of Labor took up once again on Thursday, January 27, when tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to denounce wages that were too low and a power to purchase at half mast.
“The abolition of the housing tax, of certain social security contributions, with the increase in the activity bonus, is the equivalent for someone who earns the Smic of a 13th or 14th month”detailed Elisabeth Borne, interviewed on CNews.
A report from the Directorate General of the Treasury published in October studied the impact of around forty measures taken by the government since the start of the five-year term. It actually turns out that“a single worker paid the minimum wage can now earn €170 per month more”. But it is therefore not a question of all the workers paid at minimum wage. “The typical case chosen is a single person working at minimum wage, who paid €595/year of housing tax on his main residence before the reform, who works 111 overtime hours per year, and who receives an exceptional purchasing power bonus. of 600 €/year”, states the report.
This is therefore a very specific case which cannot allow us to say that everyone benefited from the same increase. Regarding the exceptional purchasing power bonus, for example, the 2019 figures show that only 17% of small businesses have paid this “Macron bonus” even though they have the most employees on the minimum wage.
In summary, Elisabeth Borne should have specified that this was a special case, illustrating however a more global trend. Still according to the report of the General Directorate of the Treasury, low-income households are indeed those who have experienced the greatest increase in their purchasing power since the start of the five-year term: +4% in four years.