Increase in the minimum wage: 164 professional branches could find themselves with lower minimums at the start of December, according to the CGT

With the increase in the minimum wage scheduled for December 1, 164 professional branches could find themselves with minimum wages below the minimum wage, estimated Wednesday the CGT, which is calling for several measures to counter the decline in salary scales.

“As of December 1, 164 branches covering more than 14 million employees (out of 22 million) will have a minimum lower than the minimum wage. On October 28, the CGT revealed that 122 branches covering more than 9 million private sector employees were affected. With the 1.6% increase in the minimum wage on December 1, 2026, 42 additional branches will be illegal! A record!”, writes the second union confederation of employees in a press release.

Skip the ad

Metallurgy, technical design offices, hotels-cafes-restaurants, cleaning companies, automobile services, establishments for disabled people, wholesale trade, road transport of goods and even fast food are among the ten non-compliant branches with the most employees, according to the CGT. Its estimates are based on tables from the Branch Monitoring Committee transmitted by the General Directorate of Labor, updated with extended branch agreements.

“A generalized downturn”

In France, there are some 170 professional branches which each bring together at least 5,000 employees. Their collective agreements generally provide for a conventional minimum wage, but these minimums are sometimes lower than the minimum wage. “Despite the numerous government promises since 2023, no sanctions have been put in place,” deplores the CGT, pointing to “a generalized reduction in the scales with employees stuck to the minimum wage for 10 or 15 years, intermediate professions and even sometimes executives caught up with the minimum wage.”

The confederation, which will participate on Thursday in the salary monitoring committee chaired by the Minister of Labor, will demand, among other things, “the immediate opening of negotiations in all branches and the increase in all salaries by at least 5.3% to pass on the increase in the minimum wage in 2026 to all scales”. She also calls for “immediate sanctions for all branches which do not respect the law, while the decree that the government has just published gives them a period of one year and a long series of possibilities to escape sanctions”.

In the measures announced by the government on Monday to try to respond to social anger, the minimum wage will increase on December 1 by 1.6%, to be brought to approximately 1,502 euros net, or a monthly increase of approximately 24 euros. The government has requested, according to the Minister of Labor Jean-Pierre Farandou, that the branches open negotiations “from next week” to raise their minimums taking into account the new minimum wage. The Ministry of Labor, whose method differs, counted 69 branches with minimums below the minimum wage and estimated that the increase in the minimum wage would push an additional 64 into non-compliance.