Paris (AFP)
The minimum wage will be increased by 0.99% on January 1 to reach 1,554.58 euros gross per month, an increase of 15 euros, according to the decree adopted by the Council of Ministers on Wednesday.
This increase, which corresponds to the automatic revaluation of the minimum wage, will bring the gross hourly amount to 10.25 euros.
At the beginning of December, Jean Castex had indicated that there would "probably" be no boost beyond the automatic revaluation, as recommended each year by the group of experts, consulted before each revaluation.
The minimum wage benefits each year from a mechanical increase calculated according to two criteria: the inflation observed for the 20% of households with the lowest incomes and half of the gain in purchasing power of the basic hourly wage of workers and employees (SHBOE) .
For the CGT, which claims a minimum wage of 1,800 euros gross, it is "further proof that the majority fools employees by taking grandiloquent accents on low wages, while struggling to block any increase in the minimum wage" .
At the end of the Council of Ministers, the government spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, underlined that the executive had since 2017 "broadened and strengthened" the activity bonus to increase "the purchasing power of our fellow citizens who work on minimum wage ".
"This makes, for a person on minimum wage, a monthly gain of 136 to 236 euros per month when we combine all of these measures," he assured.
In 2020, the revaluation of 1.2% benefited 2.25 million employees in the private sector, or 13% of employees, according to Dares.
The proportion of beneficiaries of the revaluation of the minimum wage is three times higher among part-time employees (30% against 9% of full-time employees) and within very small companies (27.3% in those from 1 to 9 employees, compared to 9.8% in those with 10 or more employees).
Women represent 44% of employees in the private sector, but 59.3% of employees affected by the increase in the minimum wage.
© 2020 AFP