New France Premier Urges 4% Wage Hike

Over the angry shouts of conservative lawmakers, France’s Socialist Premier Lionel Jospin on Thursday proposed a 4% rise in the minimum wage and vowed to block the sell-off of public services.

In his first National Assembly speech since his leftist coalition came to power June 1, Jospin also promised to revamp the former right-wing government’s tough immigration laws.

“The French made a choice full of hope but heavy with demands,” Jospin said. “We want to give a precious thing back to the country . . . a meaning.”

The right reacted with displeasure to his program, but the premier, as expected, won the vote of confidence for his plans, 297-252.

Jospin had been under pressure from the Communists in his coalition to grant the rise in the minimum wage, currently about $1,100 a month. The comparable U.S. monthly wage based on a 40-hour workweek is about $760.

Jospin’s proposals are likely to be approved by the National Assembly, where he has formed a governing majority of Socialists, Communists and environmentalist Greens.

In proposing the increase, Jospin called it “the strongest rise in buying power over the past 15 years for that salary level.”

His stance is that higher wages tend to raise purchasing power, and the economy then grows when people buy more. But most developed countries, given international trade competition and economic efficiency, have come to believe that high wage costs reduce firms’ incentives to hire new employees.

Jospin also opposed privatizing public-sector industries “without justification in the national interest.”

Jospin proposed a plan to build 100,000 homes and renovate 1 million others to expand housing and fight record 12.8% unemployment. He also called for an increase in student aid.