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Economy

France Brings Forward 1.6% Minimum Wage Rise to December as Unions Call It Too Little

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu moved the annual minimum wage increase up a month, to €1,502 net a month, in answer to weeks of cost-of-living protests. Unions said the €24 rise falls far short of what workers need and called a new strike for November 17.

By admin Nov. 9, 2026 · 9:44 PM ET 2 min read

A Paris street lined with stone Haussmann buildings on an overcast morning, with pedestrians on the sidewalks.

France will raise its national minimum wage by 1.6 percent on December 1, a month earlier than planned, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Monday, in the government’s first direct answer to weeks of protests over the cost of living.

The increase will take the monthly minimum wage, known as the SMIC, to a net €1,502 ($1,676), up €24 from the current level, Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou told a press conference. France would normally raise the minimum wage on January 1 to reflect inflation.

Lecornu called the move “the second-biggest increase in 20 years” and said it “should not be held in contempt.” Unions dismissed it within hours. Marylise Léon, head of the CFDT, France’s largest union, called the increase “insufficient,” while Sophie Binet, head of the CGT, described it as “crumbs” and said, “We didn’t come here to beg for alms.” Binet called for new protests on November 17.

A large crowd of people walking down a wide Paris boulevard lined with autumn trees.

The unions had asked for far more. The CFDT sought a €100 monthly increase, and the CGT demanded a 10 percent rise, worth about €150 a month.

Protests that began in schools

The demonstrations began in high schools in September, over underfunded schools, and have since grown into a wider protest over living costs, public services and political stagnation. Riots broke out in major cities on October 17, and a nationwide strike on November 5 drew 575,000 people by the Interior Ministry’s count and about 1.6 million by the CGT’s count.

A shopper holding a basket in a Paris grocery store, with shelves of bread, fruit and vegetables.

The government has little room to give more, Lecornu’s office has said, because of France’s mounting debt burden. At the same time, the minimum wage reaches a large share of French workers: it stood at 67 percent of average earnings in 2024, and 12.7 percent of employees were paid at or near the minimum wage, according to Eurostat data. The figures were 8 percent in Germany and 3.5 percent in the Netherlands.

The unrest comes five months before France’s presidential election. Opinion polls put far-right leader Marine Le Pen ahead, with hard-left rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon seen as her likely opponent in a run-off. President Emmanuel Macron, near the end of his second term, cannot run again.

The courtyard of a French government building in Paris, with a French flag on a pole behind wrought iron gates.

Reporting based on coverage by Reuters.

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