France to raise minimum wage by 1.6% after weeks of protests

After weeks of demonstrations and riots across France, the government has announced a 1.6 percent increase in the minimum wage. The increase has been brought forward and will take effect on December 1 this year.

In practice, the minimum wage will rise by 24 euros to 1,502 euros per month (equivalent to 264 and 16,514 kronor).

We worked on this increase so that it would not lead to job losses, says Sébastien Lecornu.

However, unions have rejected the increase, calling it insufficient.

The government has only given us crumbs, says Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT union, adding that the unions are demanding “a response to the enormous social anger that is manifesting itself in the country,” writes Le Monde.