The minimum wage in France will automatically increase from May 1 by 2.65% or about 34 euros due to high inflation since November, the French Ministry of Labor announced, AFP reports. For full-time work, the monthly minimum wage will become 1645.58 euros gross. The net salary will increase from 1269 to 1302.64 euros. The gross hourly minimum wage is 10.85 euros compared to 10.57 euros so far.
In France, the purchasing power of minimum wage workers is protected by an automatic indexation mechanism enshrined in law, which ensures that the minimum wage rises at least as fast as inflation affecting the lowest-income households.
According to the final data on the consumer price index in March, published today by the National Statistical Institute, inflation, excluding tobacco, between November 2021 and March 2022 reached 2.65 percent for 20% of households with lowest income.
The minimum wage rose 0.9 percent in January after an extraordinary 2.2 percent rise in October, also due to inflation. For one year (from May 2021 to May 2022) the increase of the minimum wage in the country is 5.9 percent or purely 72 euros. Annual inflation in March reached 4.5 percent in France, an unprecedented level since the 1980s, the statistical institute said, confirming its preliminary estimate from the end of March. This paves the way for the automatic indexation of the minimum wage from 1 May. In February, the consumer price index rose by 3.6 percent.
As in previous months, the acceleration of inflation is explained by the rise in energy prices, which in March reached 29.2 percent compared to +21.1 percent in February. Petroleum products rose 43.5 percent as a result of market tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The increase in food prices also intensified, by 2.9 per cent compared to 2.1 per cent in February. The prices of fresh products increased by 7.6 percent in one year. On the other hand, industrial goods slowed down to 2.1 percent from 2.2 percent in February.
