the acrobatic calculation of Bruno Retailleau to denounce “assistantship” | EUROtoday

“Encourage work, discourage assistantship” : that is Bruno Retailleau’s new mantra. In his program introduced on January 7, entitled “winning work”,he president of the right-wing Les Républicains (LR) celebration denounces “Work less and you will live better” that may defend, in his eyes, the “illusionists of social-statism”which might have made it extra advantageous to obtain assist than to hunt skilled exercise. The proof: it will be attainable to obtain 1.7 minimal wage with out working, he assured for instance on France Inter on Thursday January 8.

Problem: the determine he provides, the product of a convoluted calculation, is basically contradicted by latest financial research.

What the research say: working pays extra

Work, even at minimal wage, “is always more profitable” than residing on RSA and social help, regardless of the composition of the family. This is the conclusion of a working doc revealed in December 2025 by the French Observatory of the Economic Conjuncture (OFCE), a analysis institute linked to Sciences Po.

Depending on the configuration of the family, returning to work lets you achieve between 700 and 1,200 euros per particular person in disposable earnings – the earnings out there to devour and save. To perform this calculation, economists Guillaume Allègre and Muriel Pucci subtracted the misplaced earnings (RSA and housing help) from the earnings earned (wage and exercise bonus). The stability is systematically constructive, with or with out youngsters.

Example: for an individual in a pair with two dependent youngsters, the achieve quantities to 835 euros monthly within the occasion of resuming a salaried exercise on the minimal wage, and 932 euros if the partner additionally has a minimal wage. If they continue to be unemployed, their assist would quantity to 1,752 euros, or 1.2 minimal wage for 2 or 0.6 minimal wage per particular person, in response to the calculations communicated to the World by Guillaume Allègre. This is round 1,000 euros lower than the earnings of the identical couple the place each members are on the minimal wage (2,886 euros). In quick, it’s due to this fact false to claim that social help encourages inactivity.

In the kitchen of Bruno Retailleau’s determine

For his entry into the pre-campaign with a view to the 2027 presidential election, Bruno Retailleau selected to speak on the other conclusion, by coming to phrases with the figures.

In the French social system, a pair with two youngsters would obtain the equal of 1.7 minimal wage, assured the president of the LR. “Certainly, Mr. and Mrs. X are not rolling in gold”however the complete quantity of assist they obtain could be “virtually the equivalent” of the earnings of a few staff, he assures in a discussion board at Opinion. “We have to add up in the French system between the aid which is monetary and the aid which is also in kind”he defended once more on France Inter to justify his calculation within the face of an incredulous Benjamin Duhamel.

Where precisely does this “1.7 minimum wage” come from? The particulars of the calculation could be present in a technical word revealed on the official Republican web site. This imagines a fictitious family made up of two adults over 25 years previous, unemployed, residing in an HLM in Tours (Indre-et-Loire). The word combines completely all the help for which this couple is eligible: college allowance, power verify, but in addition college canteen, public transport subscriptions on the social price, in addition to elective assist (driving license, telecommunications, holidays, and so forth.).

Assuming that each spouses apply for all of the subsidies annually, and acquire them yearly, the invoice involves a complete determine of two,374 euros, or 1.7 instances the minimal wage.

The flaws of a convoluted comparability

In addition to being unrealistic, this calculation poses a number of main methodological issues.

• Subsidies which might be additionally accessible to energetic individuals

On the one hand, the comparability creates a synthetic opposition. Indeed, if sure allowances equivalent to vacation help, the power verify or the solidarity lease discount are reserved for beneficiaries of social minimums, others equivalent to transport assist, household allowances and the back-to-school allowance are additionally accessible to working individuals. Considering them as an unique benefit of the inactive is due to this fact hardly rigorous.

• A household coverage impartial {of professional} exercise

Contrasting the social help granted to a household family of 4 and the earnings of a pair with out youngsters additionally is unnecessary: help linked to youngsters doesn’t depend upon earned earnings, however on France’s pronatalist social coverage, which inspires households with youngsters, whether or not the dad and mom work or not. “To respond to this criticism, it would be necessary to reduce family policy, which seems contradictory with the traditional program of the Republicans”pin Guillaume Allègre.

• A lifestyle that continues to be beneath the poverty line

Finally, by speaking on a minimal wage equal, i.e. a person earnings, Mr. Retailleau obscures the life difficulties of this fictitious couple, who should feed 4 heads (i.e. 2.1 consumption models, an indicator created to have the ability to examine the residing requirements of households in response to their composition). The determine of 1.7 minimal wage month-to-month earnings – largely overestimated, as now we have seen – corresponds to 1,130 euros of disposable earnings per consumption unit, which might place this fictitious Tourange household nicely beneath the median lifestyle in Tours (1,940 euros in 2021 in response to INSEE) and even the poverty line (1,288 euros in France). “No one wants to live with four people with this standard of living”underlines the economist. In quick, opposite to what the previous Minister of the Interior claims, this family has no real interest in being happy with social help.