French minister pressures low-paying industries

Since the start of December, the French minister of labour Élisabeth Borne has been calling in unions and employers in low-paying industries and urging them to increase pay. These are industries where the lowest agreed rates are below the French national minimum wage, the SMIC, and they include some large sectors, like hospitality. The employees are paid the national minimum wage, which has gone up twice in the last three months, but this means the bottom of the agreed pay scales no longer applies. Borne wants all industries to have lowest rates which are above the SMIC.