WordBulletin

World Bulletin / News Desk

President Francois Hollande's Socialist government will limit a planned increase in France's minimum wage to 2 percent, leading business daily Les Echos reported on Thursday without citing sources.

An official decision on the rise will be taken on June 26, when the government is due to meet with union leaders, the newspaper said.

Hollande had made boosting the minimum wage one of his campaign promises in the runup to his victory in May's presidential election, and is under pressure from unions to stick to his commitment.

In initial talks with union leaders last month, he reiterated his pledge, but struck a cautious note, saying he needed to avoid destabilising small businesses which faced stiff competition from abroad.

Les Echos said a 2 percent rise as of July 1 would take the gross minimum wage to 9.40 euros an hour, adding 27 euros a month to workers' pay packets. But taking into account inflation the "real" rise would only be 0.6 percent, the paper said.