This is one of the hot topics of the fall for the government. The social conference on low wages opens this Monday, October 16, with the aim of encouraging companies to offer increases to their employees.
“The grids of certain professional branches are no longer adapted to qualifications. Employees acquire skills that are very useful for the performance of our economy without their remuneration increasing,” launched Elisabeth Borne in a interview at La Tribune Sunday.
And for good reason: the purchasing power of the French continues to suffer from inflation, which wage increases cannot fully compensate for.
In 2022, the purchasing power of gross disposable income – which corresponds to the ability of households to purchase goods and services with their income – increased by only 0.2% compared to 2021. In the 1960s and 1970, these annual changes were regularly above 5%.
And the year 2023 promises to be historic due to persistent inflation. According to the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE), the drop in purchasing power of French households could even be between 1.2 and 2% at the end of the year.