The long-awaited bill on purchasing power is presented Thursday, July 7 at 4 p.m. in the Council of Ministers. While inflation continues to accelerate (5.8% in June over one year, 6.8% expected in September), the executive plans to spend around 25 billion euros to protect the French against the surge consumer prices. The text will then be fiercely debated in the National Assembly, from July 18. In the absence of an absolute majority, the government will have to make compromises to see its bill adopted.
What are the measures already unveiled by the executive?
The first package of measures aims to support incomes in the broad sense. With first the anticipated revaluation of a wide range of social benefits. Among them, the basic retirement pension, the RSA, the activity bonus, family allowances, or the disabled adult allowance. The increase will be 4%, paid at the beginning of August with retroactivity to July 1. For personalized housing aid (APL), it will be a little less with 3.5%.
The 5.7 million civil servants get a general increase. Their index point, frozen for almost ten years, increased by 3.5%. This is the biggest increase since 1985 but it will not compensate for inflation which reached 5.8% over one year, according to the latest provisional estimate from INSEE. It should be noted that the rise in the index point has only very rarely compensated for inflation.
As for the two million self-employed, they benefit from a reduction in social security contributions. Around 550 euros per year, for an income at minimum wage.
Is an increase in the minimum wage planned?
No, this is a red line for the government. Instead, employers will be able to pay up to 6,000 euros in an exceptional purchasing power bonus, without taxes or social security contributions. This is three times more than currently. Finally, small and medium-sized enterprises will be encouraged to set up profit-sharing agreements to better share the profits generated.
The increase in the Smic to 1,500 euros or even the increase in wages will be part of the counter-project presented by the deputies of the New Popular and Social Union (Nupes) in order to mark a different philosophy compared to the text of the government. “We prefer wages that create social rightsunderlines Boris Vallaud, head of the Socialist group in the National Assembly. Which allow you to live with dignity, only occasional checks or desocialized and tax-exempt bonuses, left to the goodwill of the employer.
The Smic had already increased, automatically, on May 1, 2022. Faced with inflation, and as provided for by law, a revaluation of the minimum wage by 2.65% on May 1 was carried out. This boost, which concerns just over 2 million employees in France, according to the Ministry of Labor, is around thirty euros. For full-time workers, the minimum monthly growth salary now stands at 1,645.58 euros gross. Or a net monthly remuneration that goes from 1,269 to 1,302.64 euros. As for the gross hourly minimum wage, it increased by 28 cents to reach 10.85 euros.
What is the government planning in the face of soaring fuel prices?
The Minister of the Economy mentioned several avenues while fuel prices are still above 2 euros per liter. And the discount of 18 cents at the pump should not be extended until 2023: it will disappear by the end of the year, assured Bruno the Mayor, Thursday.
“We are going to replace the 18 cents which will be reduced to 16, 12, 10, we will do it very gradually but at the end of the year there will be no more fuel discounts, and from October 1, in any case this is the proposal we are making, we are setting up a fuel allowance for workers“, declared the minister on Europe 1. Bruno Le Maire thus suggests the payment of a new allowance, paid in one go, for employees and work-study students forced to take their car to go to work. But under salary conditions. Is “Will it be 1,500, 1,600 or 1,800 euros per month? Will this compensation coexist with the large wheeler device also mentioned? All of this will be discussed during the debate in Parliament, says Bercy.
What measures are planned to deal with soaring energy prices?
The government is committed to maintaining the tariff shield put in place in the fall. It caps the rise in electricity bills at 4% and freezes gas prices at their October 2021 level. The system would be extended until the end of 2022.
La France insoumise (LFI), the French Communist Party (PCF) or even the National Rally (RN) propose taxing the profits of companies that take advantage of inflation, such as TotalEnergies, which the government rejects. “Taxing superprofits will not reduce our energy consumption”said the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, on Tuesday on franceinfo.
What is the government proposing on food prices?
Pending the creation of a food check, the executive offers emergency food aid : 100 euros per household, plus 50 euros per dependent child. It would be reserved for nine million low-income households. It will also be debated in Parliament.
The purchasing power bill will not include the possibility, for supermarkets, of practicing food promotions of up to 50%. The proposal made Monday on France Inter by Bruno Le Maire was “discarded this [mardi] morning”during a working meeting around Emmanuel Macron relating in particular to purchasing power.
What other measures are being considered to restore purchasing power ?
The executive proposes to limit the rise in rental prices to a maximum of 3.5%, from 15 october. Finally, 27 million households will no longer have to pay the audiovisual license fee. She is 138 euros in metropolitan France, 88 euros overseas. The Prime Minister confirmed its removal on Wednesday during her policy statement. This suppression worries the trade unions of the public media*, but also actors in the world of culture and left-wing parties. The fears relate in particular to a loss of independence of the public service and to the reduction of the budgets of the public audiovisual sector..
*franceinfo.fr is the digital information offer of the public audiovisual sector. Its teams and their production, at France Télévisions and Radio France, are partly financed by the license fee.