How can low wages be increased in France?
The idea that many employees are paid too little to live decently is fair and is widely held in public opinion. But how can low wages be increased in France? First, there are three serious problems: there is no macroeconomic anomaly in income distribution in France (real wages have risen faster than productivity); the sensitivity of low-skilled employment to labour costs is high; with regard to public sector employees , the public finance situation is already very poor. Given these three problems, a widespread increase in wages or an increase in the minimum wage would have a very negative impact on employment; That leaves three solutions: The extension of profit-sharing and incentive s to all companies, whereas it now mainly concerns employees of large groups; A shift to negative employer social contribution rates for low wages (as these contributions have already been almost totally cancelled on the lowest wages); Accepting the idea that increasing the wages of teachers and hospital and healthcare staff is a profitable public investment.