Minimum wage set to rise in January

THE FRENCH minimum wage is set to rise to at least €9 an hour in the New Year, adding an extra €250 to full-time workers' gross annual salary.

Les Echos says the SMIC (salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance) will rise by between 1.6 and 1.7 per cent on January 1.

It is currently set at €8.86 per hour - the equivalent of €1,343.80 gross per month, based on a 35-hour week.

The rate calculation is partly based on average pay figures collated by the work ministry, which were updated yesterday.

They show that average working-class wages in France in the third quarter rose by 1.7 per cent year on year.

The figures are based on declarations submitted by 30,000 companies in France employing 10 people or more.

The government should confirm the wage rise in mid-December.

The last increase was in January this year, when the rate grew by 0.5 per cent - an extra four centimes an hour or €72 a year gross.

The SMIC came in in 1970 as the successor to the SMIG (salaire minimum interprofessionnel garanti) which was introduced in 1950.

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