Government announces two-step pay rises for civil servants

The Minister of Transformation and the Public Service, Stanislas Guerini, after the Council of Ministers, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, May 30, 2023. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP

It was a meeting long awaited by the unions. Monday June 12, Stanislas Guerini announced several salary increase measures of the 5.7 million public officials. While they have been deploring for several months the consequences of persistent inflation (it still exceeded 5% over one year in May, according to INSEE), the Minister of Transformation and the Civil Service met in the afternoon the eight unions of civil servants, in order to present them with a “purchasing power package”.

Mr. Guerini, who had held bilateral meetings at the end of May with each of the trade unions, announced three main measures. Firstly, a 1.5% increase in the salary index point, which will be effective from 1er July. Then, at 1er January 2024, a fixed increase in the value of each step, corresponding to 25 euros gross on average per month for each of the three aspects of the public service (State, communities and hospital service).

Also from July, a specific boost will concern the lowest wages. Objective: to try to restore a progressiveness of remuneration for categories B and C, caught up by the rise in the minimum wage. The last increase in the minimum wage, by 2.19% on 1er May, has further accelerated the decline in wages: a category C agent hired at the bottom of the scale now remains at the minimum wage for up to twelve years of seniority, as long as the category B agents of the first three levels are paid the salary minimum, points out a note from the think tank Sens du service public, a collective of executives in the sector, published on June 9.

A cost of 9.5 billion euros

Stanislas Guerini also announced the payment of a “purchasing power” bonus, modeled on the Macron premium that can be paid since 2018 by private employers. This will concern all public sector agents earning a gross salary of less than 3,250 euros per month, or about half of state officials, says the government. The bonus may range from 300 to 800 euros gross and will be paid in the fall of 2023. “Nearly three quarters of civil servants in category C are part of the territorial function, for which it is not possible to impose the payment of this bonus [à la discrétion des mairies et autres collectivités] “, however laments Christian Grolier, secretary general of FO-Fonctionnaires.

Added to this are concrete measures, such as the increase in the payment of transport costs. For agents living in Ile-de-France, “we are going to go from 50% reimburt of the Navigo p to 75%, it’s 20 euros per month”, detailed Mr. Guerini at the end of the meeting. Some announcements “meaningful”allowing “Increases in purchasing power for agents who need it most”welcomed the Minister.

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