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Boost low wages! This is one of the many claims Yellow Vests that have been demonstrating since November 17 for more purchasing power. But it was clearly discarded this Wednesday by Édouard Philippe. "Our policy is not to boost the smic", the minimum wage in France, insisted the Prime Minister on BFMTV and RMC.
Édouard Philippe replied that there would be only a "legal revalorisation", that automatically scheduled January 1 next. Meanwhile, the smic remains at 9.88 euros gross per hour, or 1 498.50 euros gross monthly for a full time. "We can not live with that," says Philippe Martinez, the leader of the CGT, while in France, about 10% of private employees touch the smic.
The debate on the impact of a rise in the smic has always been lively among economists. The measure divides: penalizing for the companies and the competitiveness of the country, worry some; excellent to support consumption, estimate others. The state has no longer granted an exceptional revaluation of the minimum wage since the summer of 2012, the day after the election of François Hollande. At that time, the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE) had precisely tried to quantify the effects.
500 million euros for state coffers
"1% increase of the smic, it is an increase of 0.1% of all the wages", underlines Mathieu Plane, deputy director of the OFCE, which estimates that the money is then "mbadively reinjected in the economy ". But the measure, in fact, has an impact on competitiveness in an open world. All the more, we note in Medef, "that the French minimum wage is already above the minimum wage of most countries".
"A 1% increase in the minimum wage destroys 2,300 jobs," according to the OFCE study. "It's a lot, but very far from the 25 000 destructions put forward by other studies", observes Mathieu Plane. The cost, too, is not neutral: 0.02 point of GDP. About 500 million euros for the state coffers.
Craftsmen would not be against
One thing is certain, an increase in the SICM is more hurting SMEs than large groups, since about a quarter of their employees receive SMI (compared to 4.5% in large groups). Alain Griset, U2P president who defends the interests of artisans and traders, is not opposed to it: "Many of our employees are yellow vests, they need more purchasing power. "
A boost to the smic then? "I'm not against it," he continues. Provided that this measure has a cost neutral for businesses. It should therefore be accompanied by a reduction of social contributions in parallel. In short, the bill would be even heavier for the public coffers. Enough to make strangle Edward Philippe, who has already said no.
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