Public holiday or not, this Pentecost Monday? Many companies use this day in June as a day of solidarity. Some work without being paid, others have one of their days off taken away. A contribution which is used to finance better care for the elderly and disabled, but which therefore does not concern all assets in the same way. Explanations.
Is Pentecost Monday still a day of solidarity?
This is one of the recurring discussions at the coffee machine: holiday or not holiday? Let’s be clear: no, Whit Monday is not necessarily your company’s day of solidarity, and therefore even less so for all workers in France.
Set up after the 2003 heat wave which killed several thousand elderly people, the solidarity day had iOriginally set for Whit Monday. The principle is simple: employees work that day without being paid. In return, the companies paid a contribution paid back to the CNSA, the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy.
Except that in 2008, Whit Monday again became a holiday and a day off. And, since then, employers can freely set the date of this day. This can therefore be defined as a holiday where you will work without being paid, with the notable exception of May 1st, Labor Day.
Companies can also decide not to have their employees work
In fact, several solutions are possible in companies around this day of solidarity. The employer can thus decide instead to remove one of the days of leave or RTT: the employee therefore keeps all his public holidays.
Another solution: smooth over the year the value of a day’s work, either on the payroll, with one day less paid, or by distributing seven more hours of work over the year. But in all cases, the contribution is paid back, in the end, to the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy.
Are all workers in France concerned?
According to the text of the law, yes, all workers, with the exception of the liberal professions and the self-employed, are directly concerned by this day of solidarity. But they are not the only ones to be involved.
Since 2013, beyond a certain reference tax income, taxable retirees must also put their hands in their pockets. This then takes the form of an additional solidarity contribution.
How much money is collected each year and what is this contribution used for?
Since its establishment in 2004, the day of solidarity has made it possible to collect nearly 48 billion euros for the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy.
For this year, the revenue from the solidarity day should amount to three billion euros, which will be used in particular to operate medico-social establishments and services, to distribute individual aid, to prevent the loss of autonomy or to support relatives helping people with a loss of autonomy.
The National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy specifies, however, that this day of solidarity represents a very small share of the overall financing of assistance for the autonomy of the elderly or people with disabilities. The overall amount, in 2022, should indeed reach just over 35 billion euros, a sum which is 90% based on the CSG, the general social contribution, a tax levied on income.