Respond to public complaints! France's basic salary rises above 1,500 euros, but unions continue to demonstrate unappreciatively

The French government announced today that it will raise the basic salary to 1,502 euros (approximately NT$55,160) per month after tax, effective from December 1 this year, hoping to calm some public dissatisfaction. But the union was not satisfied and called on the masses to take to the streets to demonstrate again on the 17th of this month.

The current monthly basic salary after tax is 1,477.93 euros, with an adjusted increase of 1.6%.

Major trade unions have called for strikes and street demonstrations for weeks to protest the rising cost of living and declining purchasing power. Some trade union members told reporters from the Central News Agency during the march that inflation and rising prices have forced them to cut back on food and clothing, and they dare not even turn on the heater in the severe cold that has recently dropped to less than 10 degrees Celsius.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced an increase in basic wages starting next month after convening a meeting with officials, unions and employer representatives in the morning. Lequenu admitted at the press conference after the meeting that social tensions have increased, but this salary increase is the second largest increase in 20 years, and the government will ensure that this measure will not cause unemployment.

Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou said that together with the increase at the beginning of the year, the basic salary has been increased by 5.3% this year, to about 75 euros. He hopes the move will encourage companies to review the lowest levels of the pay scale and will set up a pay oversight committee.

In addition, Economy and Finance Minister Roland Lescure said that the government proposed to amend the 2027 social security budget to maintain the upper limit of fuel subsidies next year at 1,000 euros, which is a tax-free subsidy that employers can pay to employees.

Serge Papin, Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Trade, said that the government will also propose to increase the income tax exemption for overtime pay from 7,500 euros to 10,000 euros per year.

According to data from the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Research (Insee), the inflation rate accelerated to 3.4% in October this year. Marylise Léon, secretary-general of the French Federation of Democratic Trade Unions (CFDT), recently requested that the basic salary be increased by 100 euros per month. Today she bluntly stated that the 1.6% increase is simply not enough.

Sophie Binet, secretary-general of the French General Trade Union (CGT), called on workers, retirees and young people to take to the streets to demonstrate again on the 17th after the government announced its decision. She said that as long as real wages do not increase, mobilization will continue.

On the other hand, business leaders warned last month that another significant increase in base wages would have adverse consequences, and that the decision would ultimately hurt more people than benefit.

For decades, more and more of France's working population have been receiving the minimum wage or little more than the minimum wage for a long time, a phenomenon known as "smicardisation".

According to analysis by Le Figaro, in the past 10 years, the basic salary has grown significantly faster than the median salary, from 1,467 euros before tax in 2016 (about 1,142 euros after tax) to 1,925 euros (about 1,502 euros after tax) that will take effect in December, an increase of about 31%.

Meanwhile, median wages have stagnated. Insee data shows that from 2016 to 2024, the median salary after tax only increased from 2,129 euros to 2,190 euros.

The report pointed out that this is because the basic salary is set by the government and automatically adjusted according to the inflation rate. As for the median salary, Olivier Redoulès, research director of the Research Center for Enterprise Development and Economic Expansion (Rexecode), explained that "the overall salary level in France, like other countries, depends on productivity." In recent years, France's productivity growth has been very small or even stagnant.