What France Shows About Fair Labor Policy: Raising Wages While Reducing the Burden on Workers

As EmmanuelSaez and Gabriel Zucman note, “Other countries have followed the oppositeroute: increasing the minimum wage while cutting payroll taxes at the bottom ofthe wage distribution.”

The Frenchexperience shows what becomes possible when a society treats low-wage workersnot as a cost to be minimized but as citizens whose dignity and economicsecurity matter.

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I. France Raised the Floor: A Minimum Wage That Outpaced Inflation

In contrast tothe United States—where the federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 since2009—France has consistently increased its minimum wage, the salaireminimum interprofessionnel de croissance (SMIC).

Saez andZucman point out that:

• France’s minimum wage reached 10     euros in 2019—about $11.50
• It grew faster than     inflation
• It remained tied to a social     commitment to prevent working poverty

Theseincreases were not merely arithmetic adjustments.
They represented a normative stance:
work should provide a living wage, not perpetual insecurity.

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II. France Lowered Payroll Taxes for the Lowest-Paid Workers

Higher minimumwages were paired with a second reform:
a major reduction in payroll taxes for low-wage workers.

In the 1990s,payroll taxes for minimum-wage earners were above 50%.
Today, Saez and Zucman note, they are below 20%.

This shift hadtwo purposes:

1. Strengthen take-home pay without placing excessive     pressure on small employers
2. Sustain the welfare state—including universal     healthcare—without regressive burdens

France did notchoose between economic security and social insurance.
It chose both.

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III. A Systematic Strategy to Protect Low-Wage Workers

France’sapproach reflects a coherent strategy:

• Increase the wage floor so work is dignified
• Reduce the tax burden on those least able to pay
• Maintain universal social     protections such as healthcare, childcare, and unemployment insurance
• Use broad-based taxation—including consumption and     high earners—to fund public goods

Rather thanassuming that higher wages would harm competitiveness, France builtinstitutional buffers that allowed firms to adapt while ensuring workers didnot bear the cost of adjustment.

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IV. What the U.S. Can Learn From France

The contrastwith the United States is striking:

In the U.S.:

• The federal minimum wage has     stagnated for 15 years
• Payroll taxes weigh heavily on     low-wage workers
• Employer-provided healthcare     raises labor costs unevenly
• Social insurance programs are     fragmented and means-tested
• Tax burdens fall     disproportionately on labor instead of wealth

In France:

• The wage floor has risen with     social expectations
• Payroll taxes were     deliberately lowered at the bottom
• Healthcare is universal—not     tied to employment
• Welfare systems are funded     collectively
• Taxation is more evenly     distributed

The Frenchexample suggests that another world is possible.
A society can both value work and build collective systems of support.
Economic dynamism does not require burdening those with the least.

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V. A Closing Reflection

France’spolicy choices rest on a simple ethical principle:
workers should not be taxed into poverty.

By raising theminimum wage and reducing payroll taxes simultaneously, France constructed alabor market that better aligns dignity, security, and economic participation.

The lesson isnot that France’s system can be copied wholesale.
The lesson is that public policy is a choice—and the United States has far moreroom to choose fairness than its politics often admits.

There isnothing inevitable about a low-wage, high-tax burden for American workers.
There are alternatives—proven, functioning, and within reach.