Informations Rapides · 13 May 2026 · n° 116

In Q1 2026, hourly wages increased by 1.9% over a year, hourly cost by 2.3% Labour cost index (LCI) – Flash estimate - first quarter 2026

In the first quarter of 2026, hourly wages in the non-agricultural market sector (excluding services to households) accelerated slighly over a year: +1.9%, after +1.7% in the previous quarter. This slight acceleration was driven in particular by the revaluation of the minimum wage (+1.2%) in January 2026, whereas the previous increase in the minimum wage was in November 2024. In addition, the payments of the Value Sharing Premium (“PPV”) slightly increased over a year: €490 millions had been paid to employees in Q1 2026, compared with €469 millions a year earlier.

By business sectors, hourly wages accelerated in services (+1.8% over a year, after +1.4%). On the other hand, they slowed down in construction (+2.1% over a year, after +2.6%), and to a lesser extent, in industry (+2.0% over a year, after +2.2%).

In the first quarter of 2026, the hourly labour costs (wages and salaries, contributions, taxes net of subsidies) in the non-agricultural market sector (excluding services to households) decelerated slightly over a year (+2.3%, after +2.5% in the previous quarter), as its growth rate got a little closer to that of wages. Two factors partly explained this slight slowdown in labor cost: social security contribution exemptions had temporarily declined in Q4 2025 due, on the one hand, to the 2025 expansion of the tax base to include the payments of the Value Sharing Premium (“PPV”), which are usually higher at the end of the year and on the other hand, to the schedule for the revaluation of the minimum wage on which the exemption schedules are based. Furthermore, since January 2026, the single degressive general reduction (“RGDU”) replaced the previous schemes for general reductions in social contributions.

By business sectors, the labor cost decelerated sharply in construction in Q1 2026 (+2.4% over a year, after +4.1%) and more moderatly in services (+2.0% over a year, after +2.2%). However, it accelerated in industry (+3.3% over a year, after +2.9%).