Elise Denjean, edited by Gauthier Delomez 06:14, May 24, 2022

The government is working on a bill on purchasing power to fight against inflation.

Wage increases are on the table, but employers' organizations are cautious.

However, more than one in three TPE-SME bosses has already increased employee compensation, according to a survey by the Center for Young Leaders.

EXCLUSIVE

At Beager, we did not wait for the government to increase salaries.

For good reason, like 46% of the bosses of TPE-PME interviewed by the Center for Young Leaders (CJD), Charly Gaillard, the boss of this recruitment company, received a direct request from his employees that he could not ignore.

"If we don't, we realize that we are losing talent and that, anyway, rehiring someone with the same experience will cost us more in the end. So there is not so much the choice in reality", he admits at the microphone of Europe 1.

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The entrepreneur is therefore one of the 38% of owners of VSEs and SMEs who responded to a CJD survey and who have already increased the salaries of their employees, in the face of inflation.

A proposal also considered by the government, even if the employers' organizations remain cautious.

Why some opt for in-kind benefits

However, to circumvent salary increases while helping employees cope, some business leaders rely on benefits in kind.

This is the case of Pierre-André Métiffiot, manager of an SME with 47 employees in the automotive sector.

"We had trouble projecting ourselves, knowing what our financial capacities were. We don't know what the future will hold in our sector of activity, so we felt it was a big risk to increase our payroll,” he explains.

The business manager explains: "We wanted to work more on the purchasing power of our employees by supporting them on mobility issues."

In particular, the company has quadrupled its mobility package to encourage its employees to switch to electric bikes.

It also offers aid of up to 200 euros for the installation of an ethanol unit or an advantageous long-term rental for an electric vehicle.

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Leaders worried about the consequences of inflation

The survey by the Center for Young Leaders also reveals that 57% of respondents are concerned about the consequences of inflation on their business.

31% of them even say they are very concerned about its impact.

The repercussions are already effective for a majority of them: 45% declare that their activity has been "impacted" by inflation and 33% say they are "very impacted".

Very often, the response to these inflationary effects is often the same on the side of the leaders questioned: 70% opt for an increase in their prices.