A Usonian* Explains Why French People Are Up in Arms About Macron Raising the Retirement Age

The view of work in France is quite different than it is in the USA

Spirit of Freedom (Le Génie de la Liberté) atop the July Column (Colonne de Juillet), Place de la Bastille [all photos by the author]

**Usonian: a word invented by Frank Lloyd Wright as a means of distinguishing people from the USA, as compared to all other citizens of the American continents, from Canada in the north to the southern tip of South America*

I was sitting with a friend here in the USA while watching news of French workers striking because of Macron’s raising of retirement age from 62 to 64. My pal wondered out loud what the big deal was about having to work for two more years before people get to retire.

This is a topic of great importance to those of us in Crow’s Feet, as we are either currently enjoying our retirement or it is imminent. With that in mind, I thought I would take a stab at explaining the situation to our readers.

Let me begin by saying that I have never lived or worked in France, but I have been there twelve times between 1986 and 2022. I count many French people among my friends. These are people whom I have visited in their homes and who have also visited me in mine. While my visits to France, observations about life in France, and discussions with many French friends do not by any means make me an expert on these matters, I can say that I know a bit more about this topic than my fellow Usonians.

As a result, I’ve asked my French friends many questions as I have observed and talked with them about the practices that differentiate French and Usonian perspectives, especially when it comes to career and work life.

A question you would rarely, if ever, ask a French person

Imagine attending a party where you are meeting new people and engaging in conversation with them. In the USA, a typical opening question to ask somebody when you meet them is, “What do you do?” It is understood that by “do” there is no doubt you are asking them about their profession.

While this question would rarely be considered unusual in the USA, it is practically unheard of in France. In fact, it may even be considered to be intrusive. In France, a person who asks this question of a stranger is immediately not only marking himself as a foreigner, but most likely a Usonian.

While we Usonians define ourselves by our professions, placing it front and center in our identity, most French people do not. This is very definitely a difference between the attitudes of *living to work* *(USA) and *working to live (France).

That alone establishes a baseline for understanding a different way of looking at the world, especially when it comes to work.

A huge difference in daily work life: let’s take a look at lunch

The quotidian act of eating lunch is another significant marker of the difference between the USA and France.

In France, companies have an obligation to subsidize daily lunch for their employees. They can fulfill that requirement in one of two ways. Either they provide some sort of cafeteria on site for their workers or if the company is too small to have its own cafeteria, they provide what is generally referred to as a “ticket resto” to each employee, one for each work day of the month. Ticket is pronounced in French as “tee-kay” and resto is a shortened pronunciation of “restaurant,” the same word we use.

All over France, there are decals on restaurant windows indicating they accept these lunch tickets, through which the employer heavily subsidizes the cost of the midday meal.

Yes, workers go out for lunch every day, frequently with their colleagues. In fact, not only is it uncommon for people to eat lunch at their desks, it’s against the law in France!

When you observe French workers dining together for lunch in restaurants, you will commonly see that they have absolutely no qualms about having a glass of wine with their meal.

Wine, like bread, is a human right! [my joke]

from Academie Nationale de Musique, Paris

French workers depend heavily on government programs

In France, as in most European countries, people pay significantly higher taxes in just about every facet of their lives, from their work earnings to the consumer goods they purchase.

As a result of these high taxes paid to their governments, the general population has what I consider to be a reasonable expectation that they will receive benefits in return, such as health care, public transportation systems, and parental leave time when their children are born.

Let’s not forget vacation time! That’s a huge one! In 1936, the French government legislated two weeks of paid vacations for its citizens. More recently, it has changed to five weeks. And there’s another distinction between the USA and France. In France, people take those vacations! That’s not always the case in the USA, is it?

Additionally, the work week of 35 hours is much more respected than it is in the USA, where being overworked is seen by many workers as a badge of honor.

“Vivement la retraite!” [“Can’t wait for retirement!”]

People look forward to their retirement in a different way than we do in the USA. In France, people often say this is the time to enjoy life when speaking about their retirement years. They finally have the opportunity to do as they please, as opposed to being under the direction of their work schedule.

This contrasts starkly with Usonians, many of whom work past their retirement age and often claim that they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if it were not for their jobs.

According to the New York Times article on 3/8/23,

“The government’s plan has struck a deep and sensitive nerve in a society that cherishes retirement and reveres a generous balance between work and leisure perhaps more than any other Western industrial country.”

We’re in different locations on the individualism/collectivism continuum

Anyone living in the USA knows that the strong sense of what many have labeled rugged individualism precludes this type of government involvement, or in some perspectives, intervention in our lives.

“Do it yourself.” “Be self-reliant.”

Being self-made earns many people a higher degree of respect in the USA than it does just about everywhere else in the world, and that of course includes France.

Generally speaking, I have observed that citizens of the USA prize individualism over collectivism, which is also a telling distinction that makes many Usonians unable to understand what is going on in France on this topic.

I hope that this helps to explain the ongoing situation in France.

[Many thanks to my French friend Maryse who proofread the first draft of this essay for me, checking for facts and sending me some additional information I had not known.]