Smic, Issue A, Fuel discount…: what will change on August 1st

increase in the minimum wage

Due to high inflation, the Smic (interprofessional minimum wage) will automatically increase by 2.01% on August 1st. With full-time employment, the monthly minimum wage increases from EUR 1,302.64 to EUR 1,329.06 net. The hourly minimum wage changes from 8.58 euros to 8.76 euros.

This is Smic’s fourth rise in less than a year, the most recent being on May 1 with a 2.65% gain. In addition to the annual reassessment on January 1st, the minimum wage is automatically increased during the year by the amount of inflation (calculated for the 20% of households with the lowest incomes) if this exceeds 2% compared to the last increase.

Increase in volume A and LEP

The Sparbuch A rate, the savings product of most French people, reached 2% from August 1st. This is the second hike this year after a first doubling in interest rates on February 1 from an all-time low of 0.5% to 1%. The doubling of the interest rate proposed by the governor of the Banque de France on July 14th and immediately accepted by the government can be explained by the rise in prices observed in recent months, which reached 6.1% over a year in July.

The rate of the popular savings account, reserved for those on modest incomes (maximum €20,296 per year for a single person), ranges from 2.2% to 4.6%. One has to go back to 1998 to have a comparable rate (4.5%).

Payment of the back-to-school allowance

The school start grant (ARS) will be paid out in the medium term at the end of August to families with at least one school-age child aged 6 to 18. It is part of the benefits, which under the “purchasing power” calculation must increase by 4% to cope with inflation.

For the beginning of the 2022 school year, the amount is EUR 376.98 per child aged 6 to 10; 397.78 euros per child from 11 to 14 years and 411.56 euros per child from 15 to 18 years.

end of the health emergency

After more than two years of pandemic, the public health emergency ends on August 1st, an exceptional legal framework decreed in view of the crisis. There will be few concrete consequences as the main restrictions have already been lifted. Only two measures remain on the agenda: the maintenance of surveillance that makes it possible to know the number of cases or hospitalizations and the possibility of imposing a negative test on travelers leaving or returning to mainland France or overseas.

In addition, the Scientific Council set up at the beginning of the pandemic will disappear, but the Ministry of Health has promised to quickly replace it with a more permanent version.