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Wages and SMIC (minimum wage), Fabien Roussel

Net monthly SMIC (minimum wage): SMIC raised to €1,700 net, 5% increase in all wages

Direction of change: increase, compared with current law.

The lever. Net monthly minimum wage for a full-time job. Set by the State, it is uprated at least every 1 January. Direction rule: ↑ higher SMIC.

« C'est pourquoi nous demandons rapidement et sans attendre les élections, de porter le SMIC à 1 700 € net, avec une augmentation de tous les salaires de 5 % maintenant, dès cette rentrée. »1

Translation by the editorsThat is why we are asking, quickly and without waiting for the elections, for the SMIC to be raised to €1,700 net, with a 5% increase in all wages now, from this September.

Words of Fabien Roussel, pcf.fr, « Université d'été 2026 - Discours de Fabien Roussel » (Toulouse), 26 August 2026. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme.

No programme released. Positions taken from public statements, words of associates or documents of the candidate’s party, each dated and sourced; last recorded on 18 October 2026.

Encoding

ParameterCurrent lawProposedEffective date or horizon
Net monthly SMIC (minimum wage), full time1,477.93 €/month1,700 €/month* (outside the range measured by the source: linear extrapolation) (assumption by the editors, see the costing)Full year, €bn per year, in 2019 euros (lower bound) and 2024 euros (upper bound)

Costing

Announced by the candidate

not announced

The cited source does not cost this measure.

Published costings

none

No external costing of this position recorded to date.

Our calculation

−€6.3bn* (outside the range measured by the source: linear extrapolation)

per year for the public accounts, revenue cut, range −€11bn to −€1.6bn. Amount counted; €2bn more, costed, is not added: common part with another position of the candidate (see the calculation).

* Outside the range measured by the source: linear extrapolation (measured range: 1,477.93 to 1,691 €/month).

The calculation

  • Net monthly SMIC (minimum wage), full time: (1,700 − 1,477.93) ÷ 100 = 2.22 times “+€100 in net monthly SMIC (about +6.8%)”, each a cost of €3.75bn (2.5 to 5). Proposed value outside the range measured by the source: linear extrapolation (measured range: 1,477.93 to 1,691 €/month). Range measured by the sources: from the current value to +14.4% (increase costed by Clément Carbonnier, SMIC raised to €1,600 net in 2024, i.e. about €1,691 at 2026 prices); no source read costs a decrease. Beyond that, linear extrapolation, flagged as such. Of which €2bn not added (common base with another position): amount counted €6.3bn.

Assumption by the editors. Partial costing. Candidate's amount (26 August 2026); the PCF press release of 18 September 2026 calls for « le smic à 2200 euros bruts » [“the SMIC at 2,200 euros gross”], i.e. about €1,740 net, not used here. Beyond €1,691 net (range measured by the sources), linear extrapolation. The 5% increase in all wages is not counted: for private-sector wages, it is a demand made to employers, with no direct public spending; for public employees, it is covered by the increase in the public sector pay index point recorded under the “civil service” lever. Of which €2bn not added, common base with “Numbers and pay of civil servants”. The lowest public sector salaries are raised by both measures. SMIC share: the increase in the public sector wage bill that it counts, 1.8 of the €2.5bn of the lower bound (expert group, 2019, table VI.1), nothing in the upper bound (Carbonnier, excluding the public sector wage bill), 0.9 of the €3.75bn of the central value, average of the two. Pay index point share: a ratio of bases, the same whatever the convention, provided both bases are counted in the same way. At full employer cost (upper bound for the point): the pay bill raised by an increase in the SMIC, €1.8bn for +6.95%, i.e. about €26bn, compared with the €227bn raised by a 1% increase in the point (€2.27bn, Senate), 11%. Excluding employer contributions (central value for the point, €1.53bn, i.e. a base of about €153bn), both bases are reduced in the same proportion (244.6 / 362.1, Cour des comptes): about €17.6bn out of 153, still 11%. Editors' calculations.

Coefficient calculated by the editors from legisocial, Montant du SMIC 2026: the position is marked as an assumption by the editors.

Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule

Current law. Gross hourly SMIC (minimum wage) €12.31 since 1 June 2026, i.e. €1,867.02 gross per month and about €1,477.93 net for 35 hours. This is an automatic 2.41% uprating due to inflation (Labour Code, Art. L3231-5). The net figure is calculated by legisocial with 20.84% in contributions, and the June text is not cited. On 1 January 2026, the SMIC was €12.02 gross, i.e. €1,443.11 net (Decree No. 2025-1228 of 17 December 2025, info.gouv.fr).

Horizon. Full year, €bn per year, in 2019 euros (lower bound) and 2024 euros (upper bound). The cost comes mainly from the general reductions in social contributions indexed to the SMIC, net of additional contributions and of the decrease in the in-work benefit (prime d'activité). The lower bound (expert group, 2019) also counts the increase in the public sector wage bill and the feedback from income tax and benefits; the upper bound (Carbonnier, 2024) counts neither the public sector wage bill nor the income tax feedback.

Limits. Range between the two static costings read, with different scopes and legislation; neither relates to the 2026 RGDU (single general reduction in contributions). Lower bound, €2.5bn for +€100 of net SMIC: expert group on the SMIC, 2019 report (2019 legislation, table VI.1), effect on the general government balance after cushioning by the tax-benefit system, including €1.8bn of increase in the public sector wage bill. Upper bound, €5bn: costing by Clément Carbonnier for +€201 net (SMIC at €1,600, +14.4%, 2024 legislation), about €10bn of net cost before income tax and VAT feedback (€21bn of additional reductions, less €5bn of employee contributions, €3bn of employer contributions and €2.5bn of in-work benefit), scaled down linearly to €100; this costing does not count the public sector wage bill. Central value, €3.75bn: midpoint of these two costings, in the absence of a costing under the 2026 RGDU (coefficient calculated by the editors). The cost comes mainly from reductions in social contributions (lower revenue): it is classified as a revenue decrease. A SMIC increase also raises the lowest public sector salaries: declared overlap with the public sector pay index point. Outside the range, with a different scope: the « effet prix » [“price effect”] alone from the Institut Montaigne (€3.5bn, i.e. 1.75 per €100) and its updated costing of €19bn (17 to 21), which includes medium-term effects (employment, wage spillover) and is not static. Gaps between sources for the same measure: government €3bn, Rabault (PS) €23bn over three years, iFRAP +€32.5bn of reductions. In 2022, for a SMIC at €1,400 net, Montaigne costed €2.7bn. 2017 benchmark, under different law (general reduction, CICE, responsibility pact): the expert group costed a 1% increase in the gross SMIC at €0.24bn of deterioration of the general government balance, after deducting employee contributions, income tax and benefits; transposed to +€100 in 2026, this rule would give about €1.6bn (€2.4bn for the 2019 rule). The expert group's 2025 report does not cost a SMIC increase under the RGDU. Calibration on 2022: for the 2022 increase (+10.3%), a coefficient of 5 gave €7.6bn, against 2.7 at Montaigne. The cost depends heavily on the indexation of the reduction thresholds (2026 RGDU): a freeze of the thresholds in euros largely cancels it. Job losses estimated by Montaigne: 230,000 to 380,000 (not counted).

How to read these amounts. These are static costs and revenues, with no feedback effect, over a full year: nothing on growth, employment or the revenue that economic activity would gain or lose. A higher net cost does not on its own make a worse policy, nor net savings a better one: each programme rests on an economic model (demand-led stimulus, lower compulsory levies, consolidation of the public accounts…) that the cost schedule does not settle. GDP itself measures a volume of activity, not well-being or the usefulness of what is produced. Economic models and feedback effects.

This lever in the method · Costing for Fabien Roussel

  1. pcf.fr, « Université d'été 2026 - Discours de Fabien Roussel » (Toulouse), 26 August 2026. Words of Fabien Roussel. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme. Read the source (pcf.fr, « Université d'été 2026 - Discours de Fabien Roussel » (Toulouse)).

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