Everything is going well for Michelin employees (get it?). The tire group has just announced, this Wednesday, the establishment of a “decent” salary for its 132,000 employees around the world, following the principles of the “living wage” as defined by the United Nations Global Compact. . According to this concept, a salary must allow “each employee to provide for the essential needs” of a family of four (food, transport, education, health costs) but also to build up precautionary savings and acquire goods. of consumption.
To meet these conditions, count, according to Michelin, 39,638 euros per year of gross salary in Paris and 25,356 euros in Clermont-Ferrand, the group’s headquarters. Much more than the minimum wage, which amounts to “only” 21,203 euros gross. Which inevitably raises the question: is the minimum wage “indecent” in France?
The “living wage”, a questionable concept
“The notion of ‘decency’ does not exist in economics,” says Sylvain Bersinger, economist at the Asterès firm. It is a sociological, even philosophical, concept, but there is no strict definition. » Even the “living wage”, on which Michelin relies, can be subject to debate. Certainly the minimum wage is not enough, but Christine Erhel, director of the Center for the Study of Employment and Labor and professor at Cnam, nuance: “The ‘living wage’ must guarantee the employee and their family a decent level, that’s a pretty high standard. » A standard which also changes depending on the place of residence, as shown by the difference above between Paris and Clermont, which is another complaint.
“The salary must pay for the work and not the living environment”
Clément Carbonnier, co-director of the “Socio-fiscal policies” research axis of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for the Evaluation of Public Policies at Sciences Po, attacks in turn: “certainly, life is more expensive in Paris, but is that it is through salary that we must compensate for this type of territorial difference. Don’t housing policy and public services have this vocation? We can judge that the salary should just pay for the work, and not the living environment. »
Not enough to pillory our blue white red minimum wage, since we could qualify it as “frankly not that bad” (again a non-economic notion, as you can imagine). Firstly, it has the merit of existing, recalls Sylvain Bersinger, and of being indexed to inflation in order to preserve the purchasing power of the most modest people as much as possible. Better yet, “France has one of the highest minimum wages in Europe,” recalls Christine Erhel. A French minimum wage which also respects the non-obligatory doctrine of the European Union of having a minimum wage at least 60% of the country’s median wage. In other words, to be above the poverty line. In France, the latter is 1,158 euros per month in 2024, compared to 1,389 euros net minimum wage. Still a gap.
The activity bonus, a disavowal of the minimum wage?
There remain a few nuances. “The proof that the government itself finds the minimum wage ‘indecent’, or at least insufficient, is that it provides an additional share of remuneration for living, in particular with the activity bonus”, estimates Clément Carbonnier . For a single full-time employee on minimum wage and receiving APL, count 240 euros per month, recalls Gilbert Cet, economist and professor at Neoma Business School: “this is not negligible. »
Public policies have also, in part, focused on the purchasing power of the lowest wages. A study by the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees) in July 2023 showed that a single full-time person on the minimum wage saw their purchasing power increase by 8.7% between July 2017 and July 2022, mainly due to the increase in the activity bonus with the “yellow vest” crisis (+90 euros per month for French people paid the minimum wage in 2019).
The minimum wage, why not, minimum wage, no thanks
But what if the problem was elsewhere? Saying that the minimum wage is, in theory, correct in France “does not mean that there is no problem of poverty in France or wages that are too low,” acknowledges Christine Erhel. Gilbert This emphasizes: “the main factor of poverty is not the hourly wage, but the work quota, i.e. the working time, particularly due to part-time work, and family responsibilities. » In 2023, 17.4% of employees excluding apprentices in France (excluding Mayotte) work part-time, according to Dares, with strong gender inequality: more than one woman in four compared to less than one man in ten .
Part-time or full-time, a second pitfall remains: “the latest reports from the expert group on the minimum wage, in 2022 and 2023, show that if employees escape the minimum wage, a significant proportion remains there for the long term,” continues the professor. . All these public policies “favorable” to the minimum wage lead to “a minimum wage of France”, for Sylvain Bersinger, a concept accepted by the government itself. Modest salaries are caught up by the minimum wage, while, for companies, it is becoming more and more profitable to offer only minimum salaries, due to contribution reductions. So much so that incomes are stagnating more and more… indecently?