A very slight increase, but no boost. The government will increase the minimum wage by 1.18%, slightly below the recommendations of the group of independent experts who recommended an increase of 1.4%, on January 1, 2026.
The Director General of Labor announced this mechanical increase to the social partners – which raises the minimum wage to 1,823.03 euros gross per month and 12.02 euros gross per hour – during the meeting of the National Commission for Collective Bargaining on the minimum wage, according to several unions.
At the end of November, the group of experts on the minimum wage recommended in its annual report not to give a boost to the minimum wage beyond its mechanical increase.
“Given the slowdown in the labor market, the high level of the minimum wage compared to the median salary and the very significant cost of exemptions” from employer contributions on low salaries, they recommended “not going beyond the automatic revaluation provided for by the Labor Code”.
12% of employees on minimum wage
A year ago, on January 1, 2025, the minimum wage was increased by 2%. Every January 1, the minimum wage is indexed to inflation observed for the 20% of households with the lowest incomes and increased by half the purchasing power gain of the basic hourly wage of workers and employees.
Beyond this mechanical development, the government can give a boost to the minimum wage, but the last one dates back to July 2012, the day after the election of François Hollande to the Élysée. For the CFDT, a boost would have been “welcome” this year. The CGT demands a minimum wage of 2,000 euros gross.
As of November 1, 2024, around 2.2 million employees in the private sector were paid the minimum wage, or 12.4% of them, according to data from the Ministry of Labor.
Unions not heard
“The Prime Minister decided today not to increase the minimum wage, and bogs down workers in precariousness,” lamented the CGT in a press release. “We regret that there has still been no boost for too many years while the number of poor workers is increasing,” responded the CFTC.
For the national secretary of the CFDT, Luc Mathieu, “everyone is talking about purchasing power, so perhaps this is the year where we should give a helping hand”. The union is also calling for “the upgrading of all job classification systems” to revive “salary dynamics”.
“The population’s primary concern is wages,” pointed out the confederal secretary of the CGT, Thomas Vacheron, at the end of November. We must “remove this group of experts on the non-increase of the minimum wage”, he judged.
And, he warned, a lack of support constitutes “one more reason to strike and demonstrate on December 2,” the day when the CGT, Solidaires and the FSU are calling for mobilization for wages. The CGT also calls for “an escape from the vicious circle of exemptions from social contributions which contribute to the reduction of all salaries”.