New increase in the French minimum wage from May 1, 2022

increased french minimum wage

UPDATE: France further increased the minimum wage from January 1st, 2023. Click here to find out more.

Table of contents

  1. What is the SMIC
  2. What changes from 1st May 2022
  3. Regulatory Framework
  4. How we can support you
  5. Book a call
  6. Get a quotation from our Experts

 

1. What is the SMIC

The SMIC is the French legal minimum hourly wage, below which the employee cannot be paid. It applies to all employees of age, regardless of the form of their remuneration.

The employer can be sentenced to a penalty of €1,500 if he pays the employee less than the minimum wage, in addition to the penalties provided for non-compliance with transnational posting requirements.

2. What changes from 1st May 2022

The amount of the SMIC is automatically revalued on 1 January each year on the basis of two indicators:

  • observed inflation for the 20% of households with the lowest incomes;
  • half of the increase in purchasing power of the average hourly wage of workers and employees.

 

In addition, the Labour Code provides for an automatic revaluation of the minimum wage during the year when the consumer price index increases by more than 2% compared to the index taken into account in determining the last amount of the SMIC. It is then automatically raised in the same proportions.

With this automatic increase, the gross hourly minimum wage will go from € 10.57 to € 10.85, and the gross monthly minimum wage for a full-time person will go from € 1,603.12 to € 1,645.58.

Regulatory Framework

Ministerial Order of 19th April 2022

Reference

Learn more about Posting of Workers to Europe

Have a look at our in-depth guides about Posting of Workers to EU Countries. If you don’t know where to start, you can have a first look at our introduction on Posting of Workers to Europe.

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