Gabriel Attal wants to remove several obstacles which, according to him, prevent the French from working, producing and earning a decent living. He focused in particular on low salaries which hamper motivation, as well as on a transfer of the cost of unemployment to communities.
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During his general policy declaration on Tuesday January 30, the Prime Minister’s shock formula was to “de-microcardiate” the economy. Cautious, Gabriel Attal tackled the theme of purchasing power while avoiding talking about falling prices: inflation is slowing down but the Prime Minister knows that it will still remain high.
At the moment, there have never been so many minimum wage workers in France – more than 3 million. These workers often remain stuck at this salary level for years, which affects work motivation. In addition, as the minimum wage is indexed to inflation, all those who are just above it are deprived of these helping hands and, each time they catch up, they are basically demoted. This system reduces salaries and therefore fuels the feeling of being downgraded.
“Reform low wages”
Gabriel Attal therefore promises to take measures in the next finance bill. Without going into details, he says he wants “reform low wages”. By reducing charges on salaries that are just above the minimum wage, employers will be able to increase these salaries at lower cost. According to the example cited by Gabriel Attal, on Tuesday, for an increase of 100 euros, the employer must pay 238 euros more, in unemployment and retirement contributions, and the employee in question risks losing, because of this increase, almost 40 euros activity bonus.
The idea is therefore to make work pay better. With this type of measures, Gabriel Attal is targeting middle-class France, “the France of the in-between”, the one who gets up early and who has the impression that it is no longer enough to live.
Bringing the cost of unemployment onto communities
But still in his idea of encouraging work, he abolishes the specific solidarity allowance, paid to unemployed people at the end of their rights. It’s a real surprise. These job seekers will switch more quickly to RSA, to active solidarity income. This is a way of forcing them to automatically return to an activity, since since the recent reform, RSA beneficiaries must work at least 15 hours per week or be in training.
Unions and associations will step up to the plate, but for Gabriel Attal, this measure allows him to reduce state spending. This end of rights allowance is paid by France Travail (formerly Pôle emploi). It is therefore financed by the State, whereas tomorrow, the cost will fall on the departments: they are the ones who manage the RSA. They will therefore have to take care of nearly 300,000 people per year on average, a useful financial sleight of hand when it comes to reducing the deficit.