The French minimum wage, the Salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance or Smic as it is invariably called, went up by 2% on July 1st. In practice this means the minimum wage is going up to 1,425.67 euros a month before employees' social charges and around 1,118 euros net of social charges for those in full-time work.
During his presidential campaign François Hollande said that he would do something for those on the minimum wage and the 2% increase is the fulfilment of this promise. Some 1.4% of the increase is for inflation and 0.6% an additional "boost". The Smic is normally increased for inflation on January 1st, so the July 1st increase means that those on the minimum wage will benefit from an extra six months of higher pay, says Labour Minister Michel Sapin.
The size of the increase has been the subject of intense debate on the Left. Left Front candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon argued for an increase to 1,700 euros gross during the presidential election campaign, a rise in take-home pay of 200 euros a month for those affected. He has derided the government’s modest increase. But others argued for a more cautious approach in order to avoid creating a low wage trap in which large numbers of people remain stuck on the minimum wage.
Mediapart has spoken to many men and women whose earnings are close to the Smic limit. Sometimes they earn more than the Smic and sometimes less, but never more than 1,700 euros for a two or three person household. Statistics office Insee calculates that 10% of full-time employees and 25% of part-time workers are on the Smic in the private sector.
Many people earning this level of wage struggle to make ends meet, some relying on the charity of friends and relatives. "Luckily a friend is putting me up for free, otherwise I would be on the street," says one 62-year-old man. "It is only help from other people that keeps us from being on the street," notes a pensioner who lives rent free in a three-room apartment loaned to him by some wealthy relatives. "But how is it for people who don't have any rich cousins?" he wonders.
Others who earn just above the minim wage threshold fear they are often overlooked. "A boost in the Smic is all well and good but we mustn't forget about other people," says a public sector worker who earns 200 euros more than the minimum wage, adding: "Those 200 euros mean that I am not entitled to any assistance at all."
The announced increase only represents a rise of 21.50 euros a month in take-home pay for a full-time employee on the Smic, and this could be virtually wiped out by expected hikes in gas and electricity prices, so the increase may seem derisory. So will it have any real impact on the purchasing power of those paid the Smic? And what about those who earn only a little more? Here are some portraits of those living on or near the minimum wage...
Philippe (56 years old): "2% is peanuts"
Gazing into the distance through his cigarette smoke, Philippe is dreaming of Australia and the United States. At 56 years old, this early riser, who has been working since he was 16, wonders if he will ever be able to afford a trip to the other side of the world. He can barely afford a week in the south of France with his wife, who has been unemployed for many years. For the past two years they have not seen the Mediterranean, because they had to change their television, get their car repaired and buy a computer and because they are faced with relentlessly rising bills while his wages have barely changed.
Philippe earns slightly more than the Smic, an average of 1,200 euros a month net. "I earn 1,000 euros net in a cleaning company where I have a contract for 32 hours a week, and 200 euros net for another five hours cleaning in a block of flats to help pay the bills at the end of the month," he says. The cleaning business is a world of insecure jobs "where people living in poverty are exploited and asked to do more for less", he says. Many of those he works alongside are women in financial difficulty who do not dare complain for fear of losing their jobs.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
For thirty years, Philippe has been living in the famous "Muraille de Chine" high-rise council block in Clermont-Ferrand in central France and getting up at dawn every day to clean and polish in offices and other buildings. In the evening, when the staff have finished their day, he does the same thing all over again. He has never earned more than the minimum wage throughout his working life. A member of the CGT union and a supporter and formerly a member of the Communist Party, he voted for Hollande with the aim of removing previous president Nicolas Sarkozy, but he says he had no great illusions about what the change would bring.
But while he does not expect miracles from the new socialist government, he was hoping that the rise in the Smic would be "something other than peanuts". He says he is counting on industrial action to change the government's mind. "Two percent is nothing compared with the rise in the cost of living and the sums pocketed by company bosses on the French stock exchange the CAC 40. An increase of at least 100 euros net is needed for people to feel any benefit," he protests. But he was against Jean-Luc Mélenchon's tantalising proposal to raise the Smic to 1,700 euros gross. "That would be dangerous for small craftsmen and retailers. We have to strike a balance."
He considers himself lucky and "not too badly off compared with his neighbours", who include those living on small pensions or minimum employment benefits and those relying on charity handouts and revolving credit loans. Philippe and his wife no longer have any children to support. Their only daughter has grown up and has two children of her own. "They are the most important thing now," he says, adding that he is taking care to avoid dipping into the savings they are putting aside for their grandchildren's future. He has already done some pension calculations: "If I retire at 60, I will get 800 euros a month, which is a scandal." It looks like he will have to say goodbye to his dreams of the Australian bush and the Grand Canyon.
Alexandre and Charlotte (29 and 32): "You have to be creative when you are living on the Smic"
Enlargement : Illustration 2
Alexandre and Charlotte have never been rich. The couple from Rennes in Brittany in west France scraped a living from small jobs and insecure work contracts until the birth of their daughter Erell two years ago. Since then they have become masters in the art of resourcefulness. Alexandre earns 1,190 euros a month as a school special needs assistant. His partner works 26 hours a weeks as an arts organiser and brings in 939 euros.
On the arrival of their first child they decided to move to the country, which enabled them to pay less in rent but which also led to additional transport and childcare costs. Otherwise they have had to adapt, by cooking meals in bulk and freezing them for the month ahead, planting a small vegetable patch in a corner of their garden, using washable nappies, buying second-hand clothes, tracking down cheap packets of cigarettes on the internet and camping rough for their holidays.
"You have to be creative when you are living on the Smic," explains Charlotte. "If we had to buy everything, we would never really be able to manage." Their resourcefulness enables them to forget about some of their small day-to-day frustrations. "Going to the cinema is unimaginable, for example. Two tickets would cost 16 euros and that is all we have left at the end of every month." But the couple also make extensive use of their 1,000 euro overdraft limit. "It means we are running on empty but we have no choice."
This meticulous organisation leaves no room for the unexpected. "Living on the Smic means living with a sword of Damocles over your head," says Alexandre. "We can never relax, but we manage to have a few inexpensive pleasures."
Chantal (57): "I'm afraid of everything"
Chantal from Marseille in the south of France almost wishes that she was still on the Smic. A year ago she was working in a retirement home when her hands suddenly let her down. "I had a carpal tunnel problem (a form of repetitive injury in the hand and wrist, editor's note) that I hadn't done anything about because I wanted to keep going, and now I'm not able to go back to work." Since then social security pays her wages - 80% of the Smic, just about enough to survive on.
At the start of the month her rent of 450 euros swallows up half of her income, and what is left over pays her day-to-day bills - health insurance, electricity, gas, telephone, internet, travelcard and the revolving credit loan that she took out to buy a few items of furniture when her husband left. "That is when social security pays me on time but sometimes they are late and that puts me into an awful panic."
Divorced after 34 years of marriage and a mother of two children "who treat me as if I were dead", Chantal gradually sank into depression, and her financial problems did not help matters. "My problems are such a worry that I'm not able to sleep, even with my medication," she says. "I check my account on the internet four or five times a day. I'm afraid of exceeding my overdraft. I'm afraid of missing a payment. I'm afraid of everything."
She is always close to her 660 euro overdraft limit and so she tries to save money on her food spending, just buying milk, yoghourts and cereals in a discount store. "My friend fills up my fridge with fruit and vegetables for me once a fortnight because they are very expensive." The same friends also bought her a cigarette-rolling machine. "My trouble is, I haven't been able to stop smoking."
Cutting her spending also involves not putting on the heating in winter and using her electricity as little as possible. "But even that isn't enough. I am sure I will soon have to stop my internet contract," she says. "It wasn't easy when I was on the minimum wage but I really miss the extra 200 euros that I was getting then."
Her television is always on - it is all she has for company. And occasionally she allows herself to buy a paperback book, but that's all. Leisure activities and holidays are things that she has drawn a line under now that every euro counts. And her rare outings are limited to her physiotherapy appointments.
Virginie and Francis (40 and 46): "It would be better if we didn't have to keep count of all our spending"
With a combined income of less than 1,700 euros a month for a family of three, Virginie and Francis, who have a 10-year-old daughter, manage the impressive feat of still putting something aside. "We live on my husband's wages," says 40-year-old Virginie, who has a temporary job working for the council of the small town of Rosselange in the Moselle department in eastern France. She has had a series of short-term contracts for the past 14 years, providing extracurricular activities for 10 hours a week. She earns 200 to 400 euros a month, depending on whether there are any holidays. This suits her for the moment because doing more hours would definitely mean looking for work out of town and she is not keen on driving.
Her 46-year-old husband Francis is a public servant, working for the town council as a technician. He earns 1,584 euros gross a month, just above the Smic, and when unemployment benefit is taken into account, between them they have a monthly income of slightly under 1,700 euros. This leaves them just under the poverty line, which Insee puts at 1,717 euros for a family with a 10-year-old child.
And yet Virginie does not feel that they are disadvantaged. "We get through because we have a small rent," she says. They pay 300 euros for a three-room apartment in a housing block, and also have a number of other fixed costs every month - filling up the car with petrol, 400 euros for food, a 30 euro internet subscription, an electricity bill of 80 euros, 16 euros for their daughter's activities, and a mobile phone contract for each member of the family.
As for leisure activities, these involve regular trips to the cinema and to an aquatic centre, and an unlimited pass to all the region's theme parks. The only real area of expense is on hi-tech gadgets. “It's true I love all that – we have four computers, two tablet computers, an iPhone and several mobile phones,” says Virginie. She then adds: “I live well even so, but it's fair to say that with a little more it would be better. It would be good not to have to keep count. It's true that I still keep an eye on supermarket prices.”
Virginie and Francis “live well” because they are thrifty. “I live now the way I learnt from my parents. I am quite thrifty. For example with my iPhone I waited two years to buy it so I didn't have to pay 600 euros.”
She is thrifty because of her past...and because of her situation. “By working ten hours a week I know that I certainly won't get a huge pension. So I save all I can on the side. For example, to pay for my daughter to learn to drive one day,” she says. This precarious balance could be turned upside down if her daughter decides to carry on with her education after school. Virginie knows her modest salary will not be enough to finance that. “When that time comes I will look for a full-time job.”
Sabine (39): “It's is not a wage that enables you to put anything by”
Sabine had a “very, very lovely life” until, five years ago, she decided to leave the father of her daughter. Today this 39-year-old public servant, who works in a town library, earns 1,626 euros gross, and around 1,300 euros a month net, barely above the minimum wage.
She lives in a two-room flat in social housing with her daughter. “My daughter has her own bedroom, I don't,” she says. After housing benefit is taken into account, Sabine pays 364 euros a month for her accommodation. After this and then finding money for housing tax, a small amount of income tax, electricity, gas, top-up health insurance, her telephone, transport and her daughter's school canteen bills, there is not much left. “I can put up with anything but I want to be able to eat well. I don't really want to deprive myself of food,” she says.
Apart from the 500 euros spent a month to eat properly there's little room for extras. The slightest unexpected expenditure can plunge her into the red. On a regular basis she finds herself with a small overdraft at the end of the month; not huge, around 250 euros. “That corresponds to the little extras that I allow myself. If I want to take my daughter to an exhibition for example. To travel to Paris, pay the admission fee, have a drink and come back home, that leaves me 100 euros out of pocket.”
She adds: “It's is not a wage that enables you to put anything by. Even if your washing machine breaks down, you can't replace it straight away. Unless you take out a loan which I refuse to do.”
Taking care of herself has also become one of those additional items of expenditure that can increase her overdraft rather than being an essential item. “I have just had a tooth replaced which cost 900 euros. Despite my top-up health insurance I had to pay 400 euros of it. I am also sacrificing my health.”
Sabine says she does not go to the hairdresser and that buying a car is impossible. And flying abroad on holiday – as she used to do – is simply out of the question. “I am lucky to have a mother who has a house at Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, I go there in the summer, that's the only place I go.” There, too, there's no question of going out to concerts or restaurants. “My mother has a disability card that allows her to be accompanied for free in all museums,” she says. “I am luckier than my colleagues who are in a similar situation. Culturally I feel frustrated but not as much as others. I work in the culture industry, in a library, where I enjoy myself.”
Though Sabine struggles to make ends meet each month, she repeats that she is “lucky”. One can sense that she is making fun of herself. “I grew up in Africa where I went to a Catholic school. They taught us self-flagellation! I find it difficult begging for things, I have never asked for any help.” And she adds: “In any case, I realise that a lot of people have even less than me.”
Cécile (26): “We belong to the 'sort it out yourself' generation”
“Thanks Sarko!”. Following the reforms to the teacher training system carried out under President Nicolas Sarkozy, which increased the number of years of higher education required to five and removed the on-the-job training part of it, 26-year-old Cécile could not achieve her ambition of becoming a primary school teacher.
“I was right in the middle of the year of reforms!” she explains. “My Spanish degree and my year at a teacher training college were no longer enough. I had studied for nothing and today I haven’t reached the level – nor do I have the time – to retake the competitive examination (1),” explains a “disgusted” Cécile, who is from the Auvergne region in central France.
Since this major setback Cécile, who has a young child and a partner who is unemployed, has worked 45 hours a week. She is obliged to work on various short-term contracts and on the minimum wage or slightly above to earn a decent wage. This year she is combining three jobs. Working as a legal secretary in the morning at a firm of lawyers she earns 625 euros a month doing 17 hours and 50 minutes a week. As a teaching assistant in a middle school in the afternoons she earns 575 euros a month from working 21 hours a week, while at the end of the day she works as a support teacher for an organisation that offers children lessons at home. This pays between 12 and 15 euros an hour and allows Cécile to earn 1,500 euros net a month. However this summer, because of the school holidays, she'll just have two part-time jobs, earning her 1,200 euros a month net.
Cécile would like to “work less to earn as much”, mocking former President Sarkozy's old slogan of “work more to earn more”. She never imagined that after all her studies she would end up scratching a living on the minimum wage. “To be on the minimum wage makes it impossible to have plans, buy a house, get a loan or to look ahead,” she explains. “It means taking the bus to avoid paying for petrol, to pay close attention to each item of expenditure, to see everything go up except your salary.”
Her friends alert her if a permanent job comes up. “But these days it's all about who you know,” says Cécile, who says she stays away from politics. Condemned to work on the minimum wage, and faced with the uncertainty of now knowing whether her temporary contract will be renewed at the end of the year or not, she is under few illusions about what the Left can deliver in government. “We are the 'survive' generation, the 'sort it out yourself' generation. Today if you want to get on you can only count on yourself.” The rise in the minimum wage? “It's tiny. It won't change our lives and there are people worse off than us.”
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1: To enter the teaching profession – as in many other areas of public service – entrants have to pass a competitive examination or concours.
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English version: Steve Whitehouse
(Editing by Michael Streeter)