Should wages be systematically reassessed in line with rising prices? This would mean, for example, that with a consumer price index today of more than 6% over one year, according to the latest figures published yesterday by INSEE, wages would increase by the same amount.
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The indexation of wages to prices has already existed in France. It was in 1952 to fight against inflation at 20%. At the time, Antoine Pinay blocked prices, created a guaranteed minimum wage and indexed all wages to inflation. It was not until 1983 that the government of Pierre Mauroy abandoned the indexation of wages to prices. This is the famous turning point of socialist rigor, two years after François Mitterrand came to power.
Today, certain incomes remain indexed to prices: the minimum wage and social benefits, such as the RSA and the disabled adult allowance. But some on the left are demanding more. The CGT asks for the reindexation of all wages throughout the procession, when the rebellious deputy François Rufin advocates it up to a certain level of income.
But in France, the executive does not want to hear about it. As recently as Wednesday evening, the President of the Republic was clear on France 2. There is no question of it on the grounds, specifies Emmanuel Macron, that this re-indexation would only feed the price/wage loop. A logic according to which a boss who increases the wages of his employees a lot must increase his prices to restore his margins and so on, thus creating a downward spiral.
Hence the strategy advocated by the government, that of business leaders who grant limited wage increases, and who favor one-off tax-free bonuses. With, in parallel, a government which puts in place price shields to cushion the rise in energy prices.