The debate takes place against an already tense backdrop over the cost of labor. Since the Smic increase that took effect on June 1 to keep pace with inflation, the government has decided by decree to calculate employer social-contribution relief on the basis of the Smic in force on January 1, 2026.
The vote takes place in public session during consideration of the social security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2027. The upper house thus chooses to defer these savings, despite opposition from the executive.
By postponing until the spring the broadening of the calculation base for employer contribution relief, the senators reduce the expected yield of the measure for 2027.
In the initial version of the text, it was planned to include value-sharing bonuses and employee savings schemes — profit-sharing and incentive schemes — in the calculation base for companies' payroll-charge relief.
The postponement that was adopted gives companies a slight reprieve on this point.
This method de facto increases the cost of labor for companies.
The measure is, unsurprisingly, poorly received by employers' organizations, which already deplore the freeze on the calculation base for general relief.
On this freeze, enacted by regulatory means, the senators are counterattacking.
By writing the calculation method into law, they also protect companies from a potentially lasting application of the decree published in mid-2026. That text could have locked the calculation of general relief for subsequent years — 2028, 2029 or 2030 — to the Smic in force on January 1, 2026.
From 2028, employer contribution relief will thus be applied according to the Smic amount observed on January 1, 2027.
After bringing together unions and employers, the Lecornu government announces new negotiations to reform the system of general relief. Olivier Henno recalls that these relief measures cost the social security funds 75 billion euros.