While the deputies are beginning to examine a text on the subject, franceinfo explains to you with a glossary what are the devices that will be the subject of debate.
While inflation is just beginning to slow down, the National Assembly takes up, Monday, June 26, the bill on the “sharing of value” within companies, which should make it possible to improve purchasing power. employees. The text, resulting from an agreement between the unions and the employers concluded in February, plans in particular to extend systems such as profit-sharing, participation or value-sharing bonuses (“Macron bonus”) to all companies with more than 11 employees.
The goal? That all companies with 11 to 49 employees, if they are profitable (whose net profit represents at least 1% of turnover for three consecutive years), implement at least one of these systems , for a five-year experiment. Un enlargement which could concern “1.5 million” additional workers from here “two to three years”, argued Monday Olivier Dussopt, the Minister of Labor, on CNews. Are you familiar with these tools? Franceinfo helps you see things more clearly.
“Value Sharing”
“Value sharing” in business designates a set of mechanisms, mandatory or optional, which “make it possible to associate employees with the performance and capital of their company”, details the Ministry of the Economy. This designation brings together various tools such as profit-sharing, participation, employee shareholding or the value-sharing bonus.
According to there management of research, studies and statistics from the Ministry of Labor (Dares), 52.8% of employees in all companies had access, in 2020, to at least one of these systems. But this proportion was only 18.5% in companies with fewer than 50 employees.
For companies, the objective of these tools is to motivate their employees by paying them additional income, while benefiting from attractive tax advantages on the sums paid. For employees, the interest is to increase their purchasing power. But INSEE noted in March 2023 that the payment of the value-sharing bonus in 2022 had slightly limited the increase in wages that year.
The participation
This is a bonus linked to company profits, currently compulsory in companies with more than 50 employees. Its implementation is governed by a collective agreement within the company, after consultation with employees or their representatives.
A formula makes it possible to determine the minimum amount to be paid to employees, but the employer can decide to supplement this floor. The amounts paid may be identical for all employees or depend on wages and/or seniority. In any case, they cannot exceed 75% of the annual Social Security ceiling, i.e. 30,852 euros per employee in 2022.
The employee may request immediate payment of the participation bonus, otherwise it is blocked in an employee savings plan for five years. When there is a retirement savings plan in the company, half of the profit-sharing bonus is blocked on this plan, unless the employee opposes it. In return, everyone can benefit from an exemption from income tax on the blocked sums, which is not the case during an immediate payment. The employer also benefits from tax and social benefits on participation, in particular exemption from social security contributions on all sums paid.
Incentive
Unlike participation, profit-sharing is an optional bonus, linked to the financial results or non-financial performance of the company (reduction of file processing times, unsold stock, etc.), open to all businesses. Its implementation is also governed by a collective agreement.
A formula also makes it possible to determine the minimum amount to be paid to employees, while allowing the employer to complete this floor. The amounts paid may be identical for all employees or depend on wages and/or seniority. The total amount of the bonus may not exceed 75% of the annual social security ceiling, i.e. 30,852 euros per employee in 2022. In addition, the total profit-sharing bonuses paid to all employees may not exceed 20 % of total gross wages paid.
The employee can request immediate payment of the profit-sharing bonus, otherwise it is blocked in an employee savings plan for five years. He then benefits from an exemption from income tax on the blocked sums, which is not the case during an immediate payment. The employer also benefits from tax and social benefits, in particular exemption from social contributions on all sums paid and, for companies with fewer than 250 employees, exemption from the social package.
The value-sharing bonus
Formerly known as the “Macron bonus”, the value sharing bonus (PPV) is an optional bonus launched on July 1, 2022, during a period of high inflation. Nearly 5.5 million employees received it last year, for an average amount of 789 euro, announced in February Gabriel Attal, the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, quoted by The gallery.
The PPV can be set up by unilateral decision of the employer, without a collective agreement. It cannot exceed 3,000 euros per year (6,000 euros if the company already has a profit-sharing or participation scheme). Its amount may depend on the employee’s remuneration and actual presence in the company, but also on seniority or working time. The “value sharing” bill provides that this bonus can also be placed in an employee savings plan.
For employees paid less than three times the minimum wage, this bonus is so far exempt from income tax, the social package and all employer and employee social contributions and contributions, including the CSG and the CRDS. For other employees, the value-sharing bonus is subject to income tax and the CSG-CRDS, while companies with more than 250 employees must pay the social package. These conditions should normally extend to all employees, from January 1, 2024. But the bill provides that those paid less than three times the minimum wage, and working in companies with fewer than 50 employees, retain these exemptions until the end of 2026.
Employee share ownership
It allows workers in joint-stock companies to subscribe to shares of their company at a preferential price, whether it is listed on the stock exchange or not. This system is implemented via a capital increase or a sale of shares reserved for employees, a free allocation of shares or stock options (also called “stock options”).
Employee shareholders can hold their shares directly, or indirectly, by holding units in a company mutual fund (FCPE). The “value sharing” bill plans to encourage employee share ownership by allowing companies to give more shares to their employees.
The applicable tax and social security regime is the same as for sums blocked in a company savings plan, within the framework of profit-sharing and participation.
The “exceptional profits”
In line with the debate on the “superprofits” of companies, the text “sharing of value” provides that companies with at least 50 employees negotiate the definition and sharing of “exceptional profits”. Taking these benefits into account may give rise to additional profit-sharing or profit-sharing, or to a new discussion on a “value-sharing” mechanism.
The presidential majority has planned in the Hemicycle to re-specify that “the definition of exceptional increase in profit” will have to take into account the size of the company, its sector, etc. But the oppositions want more framing and advocate, like the elected representatives of La France insoumise, systematic bonuses in the event of “superprofits”.