in particular the two main policy tools are i statutory minimum wages and ii reductions of social security contributions paid by employers for lowpaylowskilled workers and sometimes young workers the balance of this international empirical evidence suggests that minimum wages that are too high can have a negative impact on youth employment and on enrolment in education this also serves to truncate wage distribution and transforms the minimum wage into a reference wage for a large portion of the workforce while a very large share of the workforce is paid at the minimum wage smic in france versus an oecd average of about the share of workers aged under on the smic is more than double that of their elders versus of workers aged or more groupe d experts sur le smic ultimately the overrepresentation of youth in france among minimumwage employees is less pronounced than in the other oecd countries with a statutory minimum wage for example in canada more than of all minimumwage workers are aged under oecd c compared with only in france