Growth in real wages in France has slowed sharply since the beginning of the 1980s compared with previous years. The French economy has entered into a «wage restraint» phase. There are two reasons for studying this phenomenon more closely: to evaluate the extent of this wage restraint based on a number of macroeconomic wage indicators, and to endeavour to analyse whether restraint tightened during the last high point of the eco-nomic cycle in the late 1990s. This entails firstly taking a fresh look at the traditional links between nominal wages, prices and unemployment. This is followed by a study of the contribution of other determinants to wage restraint: changes to the minimum wage, the shorter working week and certain structural and coverage effects. The wage restraint used since the early 1980s is found to have its roots mainly in the rise in unemployment, but also in the deindexation of wages and smaller increases in the minimum wage. Since 1998, wage res-traint has tightened slightly due mainly to the effect of the 35-hour working week. Although basic wages have been further restrained, this is less true of all wage remuneration together. This could be due to structural and coverage effects: the specific wage dynamic in small businesses, bonuses and paid overtime, the break in the growth of part-time work, or the rise in skill levels.