Following the latest increase at the beginning of January 2010, the hourly rate of the national minimum wage (/salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance/, SMIC) is now €8.86 – constituting a gross increase of €0.04 and a net increase of about €0.02 an hour. Thus, for a 35-hour week, the gross
On 8 October 2008, the French parliament adopted a bill extending ‘active solidarity income’ (/Revenu de solidarité active/, RSA) at national level. This new form of social welfare had been introduced experimentally for a few months in some departments (/départements/). The bill provides for this
On 14 April 2008, the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, INSEE [1]) published the consumer price index (CPI) for March 2008. As expected by many observers, the CPI showed that prices had risen since May 2007 by more
The debate on the possibility of introducing a ‘social VAT’ – a value-added tax that would be dedicated to supporting social policies – first came about at the time of the parliamentary elections in June 2007. On 10 June 2007 – on the eve of the first round of the general elections – the then
In July 2007, the French government decided to limit the increase in the legal minimum wage for 2007, raising it to no higher than the minimum legal requirement of 2.06%. In addition, Prime Minister Fillon announced that he wanted to reform the process for deciding on increases in the national
On 14 December 2006, the French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, organised a conference which brought together the social partners in France to discuss employment and income issues. A major aim of the conference was to turn around the image Mr Villepin created last spring, when had tried to
On 1 July 2006, the government increased the national minimum wage (/salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance,/ SMIC) rate to €8.27 per hour, which is equivalent to a gross income of €1,254.28 per month or a net amount of €986 per month for a 35-hour working week.
The hourly rate of France's SMIC national minimum wage was increased by 5.5% to EUR 8.03 from July 2005. Combined with lower rises in the various special guaranteed monthly wage rates for workers who have moved to the 35-hour week, this means that there is now again a single SMIC rate, after several
On 1 July 2004, France's SMIC national minimum wage was raised by between 2.1% and 5.8%. Although highlighted by the government and media, the 5.8% increase applies to only a minority of SMIC recipients (those still working a 39-hour week), and most recipients will see a lower rise, of no more than
Since autumn 2002, trade unions representing staff employed in the French state education system have been taking industrial action in opposition to the government’s planned reforms in areas including pensions, decentralisation and budget cuts. After an 11th day of strike action and protests on 10