According to a Union, Nearly One in Two Small Business Managers Earn Less than the Minimum Wage

IMPOVERISHMENT: According to the Union of Independents (SDI), French very small businesses (VSEs) are going through an unprecedented crisis

he observation is alarming for them TPE : almost half of their managers receive an income lower than Smic, or less than 1,426.30 euros net per month, for more than 50 hours of weekly work on average. This is what the latest quarterly barometer reveals Union of Self-Employed and VSEs (SDI), published Thursday, which paints a particularly gloomy picture of the economic situation of small French structures.

According to this survey conducted from September 25th to 30th among 1,608 managers, a third of respondents say they reach fewer than 1,000 euros per month. This growing precariousness is part of a context of general slowdown in activity, marked by a drop in orders and a deterioration in cash flow.

Revenues in free fall and activity at half mast

More than 56% of managers report financial problems, while 84% struggle to recruit. Result: nine out of ten managers today express negative feelings about their activity, a record level since the creation of the barometer two years ago. Faced with these difficulties, 16% of the bosses surveyed plan to stop their activity by the end of the year, against a backdrop of the continued increase in business failures observed in the second quarter. The SDI alert on a silent crisis which affects an essential part of the French economic fabric.

The 4 million VSEs identified by INSEE in 2021 employ 2.6 million people and generate nearly 10% of the national GDP. Little oriented towards exports, they are strongly dependent on the domestic situation, today weighed down by growing budgetary uncertainty.