Based on the provided text, here's a summary:
-
Objectives of the Experts Group:
- To enhance employment and decrease unemployment sustainably.
- To effectively combat poverty.
-
French Economic Context:
- Slow economic recovery in 2018 with reduced job creation.
- Unemployment rate has decreased since mid-2015 peak.
- GDP growth and unemployment reduction are slower compared to the Eurozone.
- Persistent weaknesses include:
- Companies' financial situation recovering but not back to pre-crisis levels.
- Competitiveness deficit, indicated by a negative current account balance for 11 consecutive years.
- Mass unemployment, being one of the few EU countries experiencing this issue.
- Below-average employment rate compared to the OECD.
- High long-term unemployment and youth unemployment rates.
-
Impact of Automatic Indexation on Minimum Wage:
- The automatic indexation mechanism will likely result in a higher increase in the minimum wage than the reference salary (basic hourly wage for workers and employees).
- This scenario last occurred in 2008, albeit at a lesser extent.
-
Role of the Minimum Wage in Poverty Reduction:
- The primary factors contributing to poverty are insufficient working hours and household size rather than the hourly wage level.
- Programs like the activity bonus are more effective in combating labor poverty.
-
Recommendations:
- Consider revising the minimum wage revaluation formula.
- Options include removing both automatic inflation and half of the power of the basic hourly wage of workers and employees or just the second term.
- Only 19% of those benefiting from a minimum wage increase are part of impoverished households.
-
International Comparison:
- Analyzed the operation of existing minimum wage commissions in other countries.
- Suggested integrating more social partners into the Expert Group's work and financing research as done in countries like Germany, UK, and Ireland.
-
Impact Analysis:
- Trajectory analysis shows strong escape from the minimum wage situation in the first year, which diminishes quickly thereafter.
- Women, blue-collar workers, retail and transport employees, small business employees, and older workers experience stronger "minimum wage traps".
- Strategies like vocational training are suggested to combat these effects.
