Payroll costs
The sursalaire (above-scale pay supplement)
1. Definition
The sursalaire (above-scale pay supplement) is an adjustment account allowing the contracting parties, employer and employee, to adapt to the labour market without departing from the law.
Two phrases carry the whole meaning of this definition.
| The phrase | What it means |
|---|---|
| Adjustment account | It is not a component of pay like any other: it is a balancing variable, whose role is to reconcile two levels that do not spontaneously coincide |
| Without departing from the law | The adjustment is made on top of the legal minimum, never by circumventing it |
2. The problem it addresses
There are two pay levels, and they do not say the same thing.
| The level | What it represents |
|---|---|
| The statutory and collectively agreed level | A floor: the level below which it is prohibited to go |
| The labour market level | A price: what must actually be offered to recruit and retain a skill |
These two levels are not of the same nature. The first is a protection, set by a legal text and revised slowly. The second is a balance of power, evolving continuously according to the scarcity of profiles.
A gap between the two is therefore normal, and often considerable.
The example from the article
The parties may agree on a net salary of 100,000 CFA francs, whereas the statutory and collectively agreed level does not exceed 40,000 CFA francs.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| What the market requires be offered | 100,000 CFA francs |
| What the law and the collective agreement provide for | 40,000 CFA francs |
| The gap to be bridged | 60,000 CFA francs |
The pay supplement steps in to bridge the difference.
3. How it works
100,000 CFA francs ----------- Agreed salary
^
|
PAY SUPPLEMENT
60,000 CFA francs
|
v
40,000 CFA francs ----------- Statutory and agreed level
(the floor)
The base salary remains at the level provided for by the law and the collective agreement. The pay supplement takes over above it, up to the amount actually agreed between the parties.
What this structure preserves. The statutory pay scale remains intact and readable: it continues to say what it has to say. The gap with the market is housed in a separate account, identified as such.
Without the pay supplement, one would have to either refuse to pay the market price — and thus give up on recruiting — or blur the pay scale by building into it gaps it was never meant to carry.
4. An agreement between two parties
The definition speaks of the contracting parties, employer and employee. This is not a turn of phrase.
| What each party gains from it | |
|---|---|
| The employer | The ability to offer the market price without permanently altering its base pay scale |
| The employee | The pay he can legitimately obtain on the market, while retaining the protection of the statutory floor |
It is a mechanism of agreement, not a unilateral decision. It forms part of what the parties agree upon, and that is what distinguishes it from a bonus instituted by the employer alone.
5. The point not to lose sight of
The pay supplement is a component of remuneration: it does not sit outside the salary, but above the statutory floor, within the agreed salary.
It therefore does not change the nature of what is paid. The 60,000 CFA franc gap in the example remains a sum paid in consideration of work, with all the consequences that entails.
The essentials in 5 points
- The pay supplement is an adjustment account between the statutory or collectively agreed level and the labour market level.
- It allows adaptation to the market without departing from the law: the adjustment is made above the floor, never below it.
- It results from an agreement between the parties, employer and employee, and not from a unilateral decision.
- Example: an agreed salary of 100,000 CFA francs against a statutory level of 40,000 CFA francs — the pay supplement bridges the 60,000 CFA franc gap.
- It preserves the readability of the pay scale: the gap with the market is housed in an identified account, instead of being merged into the base salary.