Value Sharing: What Can Small Business Employees Gain?

The good news for employees should become a reality in the fall of 2024. Many of them can already receive a bonus, share or profit sharing from their employer if the company turns a profit. In any case, this is what the value-sharing draft law stipulates, which will be discussed in the National Assembly starting Monday.

This text, which follows the National Interprofessional Agreement (ANI) concluded on February 10 between trade unions and employers’ organizations, indicates in particular that SMEs with 11 to 49 employees that will achieve profits for three consecutive years (up to 1 % of GDP (minimum turnover) will be obliged to pay an amount (profit sharing, share or value sharing bonus) to its employees.

The prize pool could be small if we are to believe the estimates provided by the Department of Labor based on average amounts. “Of the 130,000 companies with 11 to 49 employees in France, about half – or 65,000 companies – have registered profits for three consecutive years,” says Louis Marguerite, an Ennahda MP and co-rapporteur of the parliamentary information mission on value sharing. This means that about 1.5 million employees working in these 65,000 companies could benefit from the value-sharing system when the law comes into force in 2024, a year earlier than planned in the initial text. »

An added bonus in larger companies?

Employees of large companies (from 50 employees), who are mostly beneficiaries of this type of scheme, may receive an additional bonus in case of exceptional profits from their company. Louis-Marguerite emphasizes that “the characterization of exceptional profits should lead to an internal debate between management and unions.” The amendment currently being prepared is supposed to make it possible to define more precisely the criteria and basis on which discussions should be held. »

What if there is no internal agreement? There will be no additional bonus. “The law will at least have the advantage of putting the issue on the table within the company,” the MP continues. Then, it’s a bit like a value-sharing bonus: not that we haven’t set the minimum amount that bosses will pay 1 euro to their employees! »

€618 on average in SMEs

In any case, the average quantities distributed in companies so far are more attractive than that. In fact, in SMEs that share their profits with their employees, the payouts are large. Calculate an average of €618 for a value sharing bonus in a company with 10 to 19 employees in 2020, €545 for those with 20 to 49 employees, €1,944 for a share scheme and €2,221 for profit sharing.

These large amounts are also higher for SMEs than for the average company, which pays average copays and incentives of €1,409 and €1,850, respectively. But it also depends on the amount of salary and company profits. According to simulations conducted by the Ministry of Employment, an employee who receives €1,750 net per month in a 30-employee SME in Sarthe could receive €1,386 as a share, if the employer opts for this scheme.