After bitter and long debates, the National Assembly voted on Tuesday to continue with the “Macron bonus”, an exceptional tax-free and desocialized bonus, on the second day of examination of the bill on purchasing power. After more than six hours of debate on the interest of the bonuses, instead of the wage increases advocated by the left, the deputies approved by 327 votes against 119 this article 1 of the star text of the summer in Parliament.
Thus, employers will be able to pay until December 31, 2023 an exceptional bonus of a maximum amount of 3,000 euros (or 6,000 euros in the event of a profit sharing agreement), exempt from personal income tax and Social Security contributions, to workers whose income is less than three times the value of the minimum wage.
“We never said we wanted to commit to you”
This is the extension of the “Macron bonus”, introduced in 2019 during the yellow vest crisis, but with a tripling of the ceiling of this bonus. According to the impact study carried out by the government, more than 15 million people benefited from this bonus between 2019 and 2022, for an average amount of the bonus of 542 euros.
The left-wing alliance Nupes believes that “bonuses are a substitute for wages” and that they depend “on the good will of the boss” – to which the majority responded that this vision of the company was “from another time”. Various elected officials from the left have also repeatedly denounced a “willingness to avoid financing Social Security and pension funds” through this bonus.
After an arrest of the environmentalist Sandra Regol, the deputy of the LREM Christine Le Nabour launched towards the left-wing benches “we never said that we want to compromise with you”, immediately awakening a rain of indignant reactions from the elected nupes.
Marine Le Pen is not opposed to bonuses
In addition to the government and the majority, the rebels fought on another front, that of the RN deputies who sought to modify or expand the bond, and did not oppose it. “There is a battle to be waged, for the increase in wages” and the RN behaves as a “good ally of the macronies”, launched Adrien Quatennens in particular.
And Marine Le Pen to consider that “bonuses are not ideal, but for millions of French people it is still an increase in their purchasing power”.
The bill also provides for perpetuating the bond in the private sector, in the form of a “value sharing bond.” It will only be exempt from Social Security contributions, up to the limit of 3,000 euros (6,000 euros in the event of a profit sharing agreement). The maximum amount of the bonus and the maximum level of remuneration that can give access to it must be the subject of a company or group agreement or, failing that, of a unilateral decision of the employer.
Source: BFM TV
