I see that my proposal to set up a minimum wage specific to Ile-de-France to ensure equal purchasing power for essential workers in the region is sparking a lot of debate, and I welcome it: it proves that It’s a subject that deserves to be tackled.
I note that while some economists criticize this proposal, we agree on the observation: the cost of living in the Ile-de-France region is much higher than elsewhere. INSEE notes that prices in the Ile-de-France region in 2022 exceeded those in the rest of mainland France by 7.2% on average. An example: housing. Renting a studio in Créteil, in Ile-de-France, absorbs more than half of a minimum wage, while in Limoges, in New-Aquitaine, it only represents 25%. This is also the case for food expenses. Faced with this state of affairs, I propose a specific negotiation of the minimum wage for the capital region in application of the decentralization law, which allows this territorial differentiation if the State accepts it. For what ? Because I refuse that in the name of a pseudo-equality, which is in reality only a facade, we remain silent about real injustices. I cannot resign myself to the fact that in Ile-de-France it is more difficult to make ends meet than elsewhere. What is unfair is not my proposal, but the current situation and the status quo!
Basically, I see that we are touching here on the French evil which is eating away at our society and sterilizing our debates: everyone sharing an observation and refusing any differentiation in solutions. Refuse any experimentation on principle. To those who say that it is unconstitutional, I usefully remind you that the minimum wage was regionalized before 1968. What I am proposing is not a step backwards, it is a specific differentiation for a homogeneous region which constitutes an employment area. unique and coherent, Ile-de-France. This differentiation between Ile-de-France and other regions already exists in practice: the median monthly salary in Ile-de-France is 2,265 euros net, according to the latest figures from INSEE (2018), or nearly 400 euros of more than the median salary in the rest of France. And yet the minimum wage is the same!
To those who say that an increase in the minimum wage risks destroying jobs, I respond that businesses in the Ile-de-France region are already forced to offer salaries above the minimum wage to recruit. They do this in many sectors. On the other hand, with the cost of living in Ile-de-France, public services are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit category C agents, such as caregivers, maintenance or security agents. I do not want to destroy our essential jobs, on the contrary, I want to fill them. I remind you that we are not at full employment in Ile-de-France, despite 530,000 recruitment projects for positions, many of which are considered difficult to fill by the employers themselves…
So I cannot resolve to simply share an observation without taking action. I claim the right to differentiation, to an Ile-de-France exception which can be consistent with the realities of my territory. It is a question of justice that private but especially public employers are led to pay Ile-de-France employees with dignity, that their remaining living conditions give them “purchasing power parity” with those in other regions.
Also, I ask the State to give me the opportunity to act in this area by thinking together about the modalities and resources. This could involve a first major regional conference on low wages with the social partners. Let’s dare to tackle the daily problems of Ile-de-France residents together! As for the economist Gilbert Cet, who proposes that “the region pays” instead of businesses, echoing François Hollande’s famous phrase – “It costs nothing, it’s the State that pays” – I reminds him that, behind the region, there is always a taxpayer who finances it! Raising taxes on Ile-de-France residents to increase salaries does not seem to me to be the most efficient response to the problem…