the government threatens to sanction sectors which have minimum wages below the minimum wage

Elisabeth Borne wants to ensure “that work pays better”. The Prime Minister threatened, Monday October 16, to sanction professional sectors which have minimum wages below the minimum wage, at the end of a social conference on low wages. Welcoming a moment of consultation “useful”the head of government announced that the Ministry of Labor would receive “soon all branches with minimums below the minimum wage so that they can explain their delay”. “If we do not see significant progress by June 1, 2024, the government will propose to Parliament a text of law which will allow exemptions to be calculated not on the basis of the minimum wage, but on the basis of the branch minimum”she said.

Currently, 56 branches are not in compliance, including around ten “sustainably”, according to the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt. This does not mean, however, that employees are paid below the minimum wage – the employer must fill the gap if necessary – but when several levels of seniority are caught up by the minimum wage, this generates a “compaction” salaries.

Disappointed unions

Elisabeth Borne also proposed to the social partners to “build a new index” on gender equality and announced a mission entrusted to experts on exemptions from social contributions. The Prime Minister also confirmed the creation of a High Remuneration Council which will, for example, work on part-time work in order to prepare for inter-professional negotiations.

The unions, which had expressed numerous demands upstream – including the “conditionality of public aid to businesses” – and says he is waiting for measures “concrete”expressed their disappointment. “We remain unsatisfied, we would have liked to have much more concrete elements for the workers,” regretted the general secretary of the CFDT, Marylise Léon. “All that for this !”for her part deplored her CGT counterpart, Sophie Binet, pointing out a “timid putting pressure on the branches” and castigating a government which has “blinders faced with the situation of millions of employees who cannot make ends meet”.