Meagre pay rise for worst-paid French workers

The French national minimum wage, the SMIC, rose by 2.1% at the start of this month – the smallest increase possible under the French system, which states that it should go up every year by at least the value of inflation plus half the real increase in manual workers’ earnings.

France’s latest inflation figure, for May, is 1.1%.

The minimum hourly rate has risen from €8.27 to €8.44, and the monthly rate – based on a 35-hour week – to €1,280.07.

France’s main union confederations, the CGT and the CFDT, both condemned the meagre increase.

CGT national secretary Maryse Dumas declared that “only the employers’ organisations will be happy with the government’s decisions”. Her CFDT counterpart, Laurence Laigo, commented: “Employees will not understand why there has been nothing extra, when [the government] is producing reductions in charges for employers”.

Labour minister Xavier Bertrand has indicated that the issue of higher pay for all employees will be on the agenda of September’s planned meeting between the government, unions and employers.