Better French Macron-Economics
The new Economy Minister speaks up for the jobless.
Maybe miracles do happen. A member of Francois Hollande's new cabinet, barely two days into the job, took on one of the centerpieces of the country's dysfunctional economic policy: the notorious 35-hour work week.
It's time to rethink labor policy, newly installed Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with Le Point magazine last week. After discussing his desire to simplify measures that force small firms to offer progressively more expensive benefits the more employees they hire, he suggests that the government also could "allow enterprises and branches, with a majority agreement [with workers], to waive the rules on working hours and compensation."
Congratulations to Mr. Macron for starting in the right place. The 35-hour work week, which forces employers to pay overtime or offer compensatory vacation time if employees exceed the limit, was introduced in 2000 as a jobs-creation measure. The Socialist government of the day argued that employers would have to hire more people to produce the same level of output if each worker worked less. Instead it has driven up French labor costs and deterred job-creating investment.
Unions are furious about Mr. Macron's trial balloon, and President Hollande's skittishness about challenges from the far left of his Socialist Party may deter him from following through. Still, Mr. Macron's clear thinking on this and other issues makes for a refreshing change from predecessor Arnaud Montebourg, whose main economic idea was to chase away foreign investors.
Meanwhile, although Mr. Macron's thoughts on the work week have attracted the most attention, elsewhere in the interview he offered a broader principle that could apply to the Obama Administration as much as France:
"It's a matter of getting out of the trap where the accumulation of rights granted to workers transforms into handicaps for those who don't have jobs, especially young people and those from overseas. . . . We forget that historically the law served to protect the rights of the most vulnerable, but today the superabundance of laws can instead handicap the most vulnerable."