Collective agreements

Collective agreements are industry-wide agreements that are used to set pay levels for some professions and types of work.

Collective agreements are used primarily in France, but they could be used in other countries where industry-wide agreements may be drawn between unions and employers.

Where used, collective agreements present these general characteristics:

An organization typically has a collective agreement that reflects their industry. For example, software, education, or manufacturing.
The collective agreement mandates minimum and maximum salaries by job classification and level of experience. The pay rate must be within collective agreement pay ranges.
The collective agreement pay ranges can be used in addition to salary structures. The pay rate can be outside of salary structure pay ranges.

Collective agreements components

Note:

These terms are based on the use of collective agreements in France. If used for a similar purpose in other countries, then the specified values might differ. For example, some classifications might be provided by professional organizations instead of the government.


Population category	A professional classification of workers, such as professional or non-professional.
Position/level	Job classification and level of experience represented as a numerical value as categorized by the government. For example, 2.1, 2.2, 3, 3.1. A position/level correlates with a specific coefficient/index value.
Step	An optional subclassification on some collective agreements.
Coefficient/Index	A numeric value based on position/level that is used by the government to determine if a worker is receiving the minimum pay rate. For example, 210 may correlate with a minimum rate of 3000 Euros per month.