A CAF brochure on the RSA and the activity bonus.

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GILE Michel / SIPA

  • “It's official, the RSA now exceeds the minimum wage, what's the point of working!

    ", Is it put forward in a viral message on Facebook, without any figures to support this assertion.

  • This publication follows the announcement by the executive of "exceptional aid" for the most vulnerable people.

  • The claim is false.

This misconception, repeatedly denied by experts and associations, is almost as old as the creation of the RMI, in 1988, and of its successor, the RSA, in 2009. The beneficiaries of these social minimums would, in some cases, be better off than workers earning the minimum wage.

This idea is spreading again on Facebook since this weekend, in the form of a message relayed by several Internet users.

“It's official, the RSA now exceeds the minimum wage, what's the point of working!, We can read in this short text.

Make kids and stay warm, it's more profitable.

"

No, the RSA does not exceed the minimum wage.

- Facebook screenshot

No source, no figure is put forward to support this assertion, which appeared when Emmanuel Macron announced the payment of one-off assistance of 150 euros for each beneficiary of the RSA and additional assistance of 100 euros per child.

This aid of 150 euros will also be paid to beneficiaries of APL.

FAKE OFF

This assertion is false.

Whatever the configuration of the household, the standard of living of a person or a couple with the RSA is lower than that of a person receiving the minimum wage, according to the calculations of the DREES (the research department, studies , evaluation and statistics, depending on the Ministries of Labor, Health, and Economy and Finance), published at the end of September 2020 and identified by AFP.

The standard of living of a single person without children on the RSA is less than 47% than that of a person receiving the full-time minimum wage, according to these calculations.

This means that this person with the RSA receives 678 euros less than a person with the minimum wage (776 euros against 1,454 euros, activity bonus included).

A single person with two children at RSA has a standard of living 34% lower, and a couple with one child a lower standard of living by 35%.

To calculate the standard of living, the DREES takes into account, in addition to the RSA or the minimum wage, the various allowances to which recipients or workers can claim (activity bonus for the minimum wage, family allowances, etc.).

The RSA for a single person without children amounts to 564.78 euros per month, while the minimum wage is around 1,219 euros net.

"The RSA amounts are extremely low"

The “exceptional aid” announced by the government does not upset these calculations.

A single person with the RSA will therefore have a standard of living of 926 euros the month they receive this single aid, while a person with the minimum wage in the same situation will always receive 1,454 euros.

“Today in France, we have a minimum income which does not allow us to live with dignity.

With 500 euros, once you have paid your expenses, you have nothing left, these are the lives of daily sacrifices ”, underlines to

20 Minutes

 Jean Merckaert, director of advocacy France and Europe at Secours Catholique.

1.91 million households were beneficiaries of the RSA in March 2020, according to an estimate by the CAF.

“The RSA amounts are extremely low.

When the RMI was launched in 1988, it represented 50% of the minimum wage.

Today, it is less than 40% of the minimum wage and the activity bonus.

"

"The trap is to pit the working poor against the other poor"

Contrary to what the viral message implies, workers paid minimum wage also have the right to aid, such as the activity bonus already mentioned.

"Poor workers also have the right to family allowances", adds Jean Merckaert, while stressing that "low wages are too low in France".

"The trap is to oppose the working poor and the other poor", explains Anne Eydoux, lecturer in economics at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (Cnam).

She recalls that "social minima are made to ensure a minimum to allow people and families to live, whether they work or not".

"The main obstacle to resuming employment […] is the lack of jobs"

Associations and researchers underline another received idea: “The idea according to which the increase of the RSA would disinterest people to go to seek a job.

All research shows the opposite, ”points out Jean Merckaert.

“The Nobel laureate in economics Esther Duflo explained that, when we give a stable income, that gives a stable mattress to look for work, which we do not do when we install people in continuous precariousness.

"

“The main obstacle to resuming employment is not the monetary obstacle, it is the lack of jobs, to which can be added difficulties: low-skilled people, mobility problems, health problems, family constraints for mothers of single-parent families ”, analyzes Anne Eydoux.

"The exit of the RSA from the top is not done"

This opposition between the most precarious "is a controversy that we often see", denounces Manuel Domergue, director of studies of the Abbé-Pierre Foundation.

According to him, the "exit from the RSA from above" - ​​that is to say by a return to employment - has dried up due to the health and economic crisis.

“People stay there.

"

The government expects an increase in the number of beneficiaries of 8.7% in 2020 due to the crisis, said Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Public Accounts on Monday evening.

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