Volatilité macroéconomique et règle d'indexation du SMIC

The specific rule governing the increases in the French minimum wage (SMIC) can lead to a change in the minimum wage which is larger than the change of the workers hourly base wage (SHBO), as did happen in 1985, 1987 and 2008. In this note we show that the probability of such an event depends on both the variance of the inflation rate and that of the real wage growth rate. When macroeconomic volatility is fairly low, as was observed from 1996 to 2007, we estimate this probability to 6%. The average increase of the SMIC is larger than the average growth of the SHBO only in a much more unstable setting, characterized by fluctuations in inflation and real wages of magnitudes five times greater. JEL Classification codes: E24, E31, J38.