On October 11, the seventh lecture of "2022 Global Flexible Employment Era and Expanding Social Protection Serial Lectures" was held online, which was organized by the CULR and co-organized by the Labor Relations Branch of the Chinese Association of Human Resource Development. Dr. Han Zhuang, Researcher of the Institute of International Law of the University of Poitiers, was invited as the lecturer to make a presentation titled Minimum Wage and Common Prosperity: France as an Example. More than 210 scholars, experts, teachers and students inside and outside the CULR listened online.
In the lecture, Dr. Han Zhuang started from the development process of minimum wage and collective bargaining, focused on topics like monopoly and pricing of the medieval guilds in France, the struggle and early practice of minimum wage, the influence of collective bargaining on minimum wage, and the establishment of a nationwide cross-industry system of minimum wage guarantee, and detailed the origin of France's concept of statutory minimum wage and fluctuations of minimum wage. He sorted out the demands of minimum wage from individual level to the levels of workers and their families, and in consideration of the changes in the past decade, e.g. French family structure, rates of children born out of wedlock, basic living needs, individual and family needs, discussed the decisive and influential factors of France's minimum wage. He said that the present minimum wage in France is usually connected with the poverty line, which is an indicator of income inequality. The purpose of minimum wage has shifted from satisfying the basic survival needs of individuals to sharing common prosperity and the benefits of economic development, including traditional social insurance (work-related injury insurance, medical insurance, pension insurance and unemployment insurance) and family subsidies, as well as the universal medical insurance, universal pension insurance, universal employment insurance and social relief dedicated to low- or non-income people in France. He noted that the minimum wage has generated the concept of "universal income", and the French government intends to combine all existing welfare systems into a single "universal income" to avoid the ambiguity of the coexistence of sophisticated welfare and incomes. He emphasized that legislative change is driven by social transformation, and the current minimum wage is conceptually different from that in history. Such change results from social transformation instead of the will of any legislator or scholar. At last, given the fact that the growth of minimum wage in France in the past decade is three times higher than that of the average level of social wage and higher than the minimum wage level of industrial collective bargaining, he posed questions such as "how the relation between law and social change can better interact and play a positive role" and "what the relation between government and market should be" that require our further consideration.
President Fu Deyin of the CULR expressed gratitude to Professor Han Zhuang for his impressive lecture. He said that Han's presentation gives a full picture of the development history of minimum wage, the changes of decisive factors and connotation of minimum wage, the income level of developed countries and the common prosperity concept, the social influence of universal income, etc. which are of enlightening significance and reference value. He also extended an invitation to Dr. Han Zhuang on visiting our university when the global pandemic is over.
In the consultation session, Associate Researcher Jia Donglan from the remuneration research office of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security gave impressive comments and responses to the lecture on the aspects of China's minimum wage system and its development history, the functional positioning of minimum wage, analysis of the adjustment of minimum wage standard, and the mechanism of the general evaluation of minimum wage standard, and made comparative analysis of the minimum wage standards in China and France. He hoped that all colleagues could work together in the future to study the minimum wage standard system in China, fully draw on and learn from the beneficial experience of the countries with a longer history of the minimum wage system, and provide valuable insights for improving the minimum wage system with Chinese characteristics.
In the interaction session, the attending audience had in-depth discussions with Dr. Han Zhuang on topics such as the relations between minimum wage, collective labor relations and interests of employment groups, whether there is a universal standard on the proportion of minimum wage standard to the social average wage and influencing factors thereof, the poverty line and minimum wage in France, and the relation between minimum wage standard and minimum living guarantee standard in China.
(International Office of Cooperation and Exchange)
The Lecturer's Profile
Han Zhuang, Ph.D. of the University of Poitiers, is currently a Researcher and Director of the Asia Department of the Institute of International Law at the University of Poitiers. He is mainly engaged in comparative law research. He also served as a part-time teacher at the Faculty of Law of Paris-Sud University, Sciences Po Lyon, and EMS Lyon, France. He also served as a distinguished researcher at the Institute of East Asia (IAO) of the French National Center for Scientific Research and a French General Judicial expert of Poitiers Court of Appeal