Payroll & Employment Guide: France

Hiring in France

To hire employees in France, employers must comply with statutory working-time rules, minimum wage standards (SMIC), social security contributions, and collective bargaining agreements where applicable. Understanding France’s 35-hour workweek, overtime rules, and strong employee protections is critical for compliant hiring.

Whether you hire through your own French entity or via an Employer of Record (EOR), you must ensure contracts, working hours, and pay structures reflect French labour-law requirements and any applicable sector-specific rules.

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Employee Benefits & Statutory Protections

Employers in France must provide statutory social-security coverage, paid leave, and ensure compliance with overtime, equality, and labour-law protections. Additional benefits often arise from collective bargaining agreements or employer policy.

Mandatory Benefits / Statutory Protections:

• Paid vacation: employees accrue 2.5 working days of paid leave per month (~5 weeks per year for full-time employees)
• 11 national public holidays per year (some may be worked or not, depending on sector and agreements)
• Overtime compensation or compensatory rest for work beyond 35 hours
• Social-security coverage: health, pension, unemployment, and occupational risk contributions, with monthly employer declarations
• Equal-pay and non-discrimination obligations, including publication of the gender-pay equality index (for companies with ≥50 employees)

Additional / Common Employer-Supplied Benefits:

• Meal vouchers or subsidised meals
• Supplementary health insurance (“mutuelle”) and other top-up plans
• Bonuses such as 13th-month salary, holiday bonuses, seniority bonuses, hardship allowances
• Transport allowances or public-transport subsidies

Combining statutory protections with competitive additional benefits helps employers attract and retain talent while staying fully compliant with French labour law.

Discuss benefits in France

Taxes & Social Contributions in France

France’s system combines income tax with extensive social-security contributions. Employers play a central role in withholding employee contributions and paying employer contributions on top of gross salaries.

Key Tax & Social-Security Elements:

• Income tax may be withheld at source (“prélèvement à la source”), based on employee’s tax rate
• Employer and employee social-security contributions fund health, pension, unemployment, and occupational risks
• Monthly social-security declarations and payments to the authorities are mandatory

Minimum Wage Compliance:
Employers must ensure that base salary plus any allowances or bonuses, when applied to working time, meets or exceeds the statutory minimum wage (SMIC) for the relevant period.

Correct classification of pay elements, overtime supplements, and employer contributions is essential to maintain tax and social-security compliance in France.

Payroll in France

Currency: EUR

Payroll Cycle: Monthly payroll is standard in France.

Payslips & Required Information:
Employers must issue payslips that include a detailed breakdown of:

• Gross salary and any overtime or bonus supplements
• Social-security deductions (health, pension, unemployment, etc.)
• Net pay
• Working-time reference period (e.g. hours worked, overtime)
• Employer and employee identification details

Salary & Minimum Wage Compliance:
The employer must ensure that base salary plus applicable benefits/bonuses, when converted to hourly rates, meets or exceeds the French minimum wage (SMIC) for the hours worked.

Overtime & Pay Supplements:
Overtime beyond 35 hours per week must follow legal or collectively agreed rules for pay premiums or compensatory rest. Employers must track hours accurately and reflect any supplements on the payslip.

Running payroll in France requires close attention to working-time records, SMIC compliance, social-security rates, and monthly filings.

Looking for support with compliant payroll and payslips in France?

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Legal Regulations & Employer Obligations

France has detailed labour-law requirements that govern working time, pay, leave, equality, and social protection. Employers must keep up with legal changes and sector-specific collective agreements.

Key Employer Obligations:

• Provide mandatory information to new employees regarding working conditions, pay, applicable CBA, and rights — particularly in line with post-2024 compliance requirements
• Ensure compliance with working-time limits, rest hours, overtime rules, vacation, and public-holiday entitlements
• Register and declare social-security contributions accurately and on time
• Apply non-discrimination and equal-pay principles, including gender-pay equality measures where required
• Respect sector-specific CBA rules on wages, overtime, bonuses, leave, and termination where applicable

Payslips and social-security declarations must follow statutory formats and submission rules, with monthly filings and accurate deductions.

Having robust HR and legal processes helps reduce risk of disputes, penalties, or non-compliance in the French market.

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Work Permits & Hiring Foreign Nationals

When hiring non-French / non-EU staff, employers must follow French immigration and work-permit rules. This includes ensuring that the employee holds an appropriate residence and work authorization and that all documentation and registrations are completed before work begins.

Key considerations include:

• Selecting the correct visa or permit type, depending on skill level, role, and length of assignment
• Registering employees for French social-security coverage where required
• Ensuring contracts and salary levels comply with immigration and labour-law standards

For foreign employers without a French entity, using an Employer-of-Record (EOR) or local payroll/HR partner is often the most efficient way to ensure compliance and smooth onboarding of foreign nationals in France.

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EOR & PEO Services in France

Partnering with a local EOR/PEO in France helps employers — especially foreign companies without a local entity — hire and manage staff compliantly while simplifying HR and payroll operations.

With a French EOR/PEO, you can expect support with:

• Employment contracts drafted per French labour law (often in French and aligned with any applicable CBA)
• Payroll processing, social-security contribution management, and monthly filings
• Leave accrual and management (vacation, public holidays), overtime tracking & compensation or rest, and payslip issuance
• Social-insurance registration and compliance (health, pension, unemployment, occupational risks)
• Compliance with working-time rules, non-discrimination, documentation, and labour-law updates

EOR/PEO solutions allow you to focus on growing your French operations while your local partner manages the complexity of HR, payroll, and compliance.

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Payroll Calculator

Estimate salaries, employer contributions, and statutory deductions in France using Dhi ADT’s payroll calculator. Get a quick view of gross-to-net pay and total employment costs for your French hires.

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