Inflation: the government’s new idea to inflate wages

The cost of living is rising, but salaries are not changing. For several months now, the French have felt the weight of inflation on their wallets on a daily basis. Their purchasing power decreases and they are thus forced to change their consumption habits to reduce the amount of their receipts as much as possible.

In the National Assembly, opinions differ on the subject. On the left, NUPES pleads for an increase in the SMIC to respond to the drop in purchasing power. But the majority are against it and want to use other solutions in the face of growing precariousness in the country.

“When there is an increase in the dividend for shareholders, there must be the same for employees” declared Emmanuel Macron at the end of October, during his participation in the program L’Événement on France 2 With this sentence, he summed up a device he wants to introduce, the employee dividend.

This is not the first time that this measure has been mentioned by one of the members of the government. For the time being, the precise contours have not yet been revealed. The adoption of an employee dividend would require all companies to pay a share of the net results to employees, from the moment dividends are paid to shareholders, explain our colleagues from franceinfo.

“The best sharing of value must be the major project of the majority”, declared the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire in the columns of Le Parisien on Saturday November 5. “The employee dividend is profit for all,” he pleaded, bringing this government project, which could soon become more concrete, to the fore.

If the outlines have still not been revealed, Bruno Le Maire has however revealed to our colleagues from Parisian that a convention should soon be held. “I propose that we organize with Stéphane Séjourné and Olivier Dussopt, within the framework of the majority party, a convention at the beginning of 2023 on this question of the sharing of value”.

This should bring together economists, business leaders, employees and opposition groups. The aim will thus be to identify “new ideas in addition to the work undertaken with the social partners”, explained the minister.

On the side of the main concerned, this measure does not seem to convince. “It’s a very bad expression which maintains the confusion between capital and work” declared Eric Chevée, vice-president of the Confederation of small and medium-sized enterprises with Le Parisien. “The dividends come to remunerate risk taking. And the concept ignores the reality of an SME”, he continues.

For the employee unions, this method does not seem to be unanimous either since Philippe Martinez, the leader of the CGT, pleads rather for an increase in the minimum wage and an indexation of wages to inflation.

“Our option is not to replace salaries with bonuses,” reacted the national secretary of the CFDT in the columns of Le Parisien.