Hire Employees in France

A subsidiary (SAS or SARL) or a branch can both employ staff. A bureau de liaison cannot, it is limited to representation and cannot hire or invoice.

Incorporation runs six to twelve weeks before the first compliant payroll, once the commercial register, URSSAF registration, occupational health enrolment and a French bank account are in place. An EOR compresses that to two or three weeks.

EOR for the first hires and for testing the market. Entity once headcount passes roughly 15 to 20, or where local invoicing is needed.

Contractors are the risk. France applies a lien de subordination test, and URSSAF can requalify an engagement retroactively, back contributions, penalties, and an indefinite contract from the original start date. Portage salarial is the compliant middle route for independent professionals.

Break-even rule of thumb: EOR fees begin to exceed the running cost of a small French entity somewhere between 15 and 20 employees. Model both before committing, see EOR vs Entity for the full comparison, and plan any later migration so employees keep seniority.

Already paying someone in France as a contractor? Run the risk check before the arrangement is tested by an audit.

Not sure which model fits? A GX specialist will cost EOR vs entity for your exact headcount, free, within two business days. Get a model recommendation

The statutory minimum wage rose twice in 2026: to €12.02 an hour on 1 January, then to €12.31 on 1 June after an inflation trigger. On a 35-hour week that is €1,823.03 a month, then €1,867.02.

Two things catch foreign employers. First, the social security ceiling is €4,005 a month for 2026, set by the arrêté of 22 December 2025. Many published sources still carry the 2025 figure of €3,925, which under-calculates every capped contribution.

Second, the RGDU replaced the Fillon reduction on 1 January 2026. The reduced health and family-allowance bands were abolished, so the headline rates of 13% and 5.25% now apply at every salary level, with a single degressive reduction calculated separately and tapering to nil at three times the minimum wage. Headline employer cost therefore overstates what a low-wage employer actually pays.

The French relief system was rebuilt on 1 January 2026, and guidance written before then is now materially wrong. The réduction Fillon and the two reduced-rate bands for maladie and allocations familiales were merged into a single réduction générale dégressive unique. The reduced rates are gone: employers now pay the full 13% for maladie and 5.25% for allocations familiales, where reductions of 7 and 3.45 points previously applied. In exchange the RGDU reaches up to 3 SMIC rather than 1.6, with a 2% minimum floor between 1 and 3 SMIC that removes the old cliff edge, so employers of staff near the minimum wage lose out while those paying intermediate salaries gain. One mid-year change is easy to miss: a decree of 12 June 2026 froze the SMIC used in the RGDU formula at the 1 January value of €12.02 an hour for the whole year, so the June increase to €12.31 does not feed through. Payroll tracking the live SMIC will overstate the relief and risks a URSSAF adjustment.

Four representative profiles, costed with the 2026 contribution rates above and before RGDU relief. Salaries are illustrative market midpoints, not GX operating data, use them to see how the on-cost percentage behaves as pay rises past the €4,005 ceiling. France has no statutory 13th month, though many sector agreements require one. For real market data on your roles, ask for a costing.

Four representative profiles costed on 2026 statutory rates. Salaries are illustrative market midpoints, to be replaced with GX operating data.

Pay is monthly. The payslip must follow the statutory simplified format, and the monthly DSN declaration carries payroll data to URSSAF and the other bodies in one filing.

Income tax is withheld at source. The tax administration supplies each employee’s rate; where none is available a neutral rate applies. CSG at 9.20% and CRDS at 0.50% are calculated on 98.25% of gross, and 6.8 points of the CSG are deductible from taxable income, which is why taxable pay exceeds net pay.

France has no statutory 13th month, though many conventions collectives require one. Check the applicable agreement before quoting a package.

Income tax is withheld at source at a rate the tax administration supplies for each employee. Where no rate is available a neutral rate applies, based on pay alone.

CSG at 9.20% and CRDS at 0.50% are calculated on 98.25% of gross, and 6.8 points of the CSG are deductible, which is why French taxable pay sits above net pay and confuses candidates comparing offers.

The Code du travail sets the floor; the convention collective applicable to the employer’s activity sits on top and is binding. It routinely raises minimum pay, lengthens notice, improves sick pay and adds RTT days.

Identify the right agreement before quoting a package. Applying the wrong one is a common and expensive error, and the employee can claim the difference retrospectively.

The CDI, an indefinite contract, is the default. A CDD fixed-term contract is lawful only for defined reasons, is capped in duration, and attracts a 10% precarity payment at the end. Contracts must be in French, and the convention collective that applies to the employer’s activity is binding, it frequently sets higher minima, longer notice and better sick pay than the Code.

Probation runs to two months for employees, three for supervisors and four for cadres, each renewable once where the sector agreement allows. Termination during probation needs no cause but does require statutory notice that lengthens with service.

The statutory week is 35 hours. Hours beyond that are overtime, paid at a 25% premium for the first eight and 50% thereafter, subject to an annual quota. Absolute limits are 10 hours a day and 48 in a week, or 44 averaged over twelve weeks.

Cadres with genuine autonomy may be placed on a forfait jours, measured in days worked per year rather than hours, capped at 218 days. This requires a collective agreement permitting it, a written individual agreement, and real workload monitoring, courts have struck down forfaits where monitoring was absent, with substantial back-pay consequences.

Five weeks of paid leave a year. 25 working days, counted as 30 jours ouvrables under the Code. Leave accrues at 2.5 days per month worked, over a reference year that many employers still run from 1 June to 31 May.

Employees whose working time exceeds 35 hours under a collective arrangement usually accrue RTT days on top, as compensation for the excess. These are additional to the five weeks and are a real cost that foreign employers routinely miss when budgeting.

Eleven public holidays are recognised. Only 1 May is a statutory paid day off for all employees; the rest are granted by the collective agreement or custom, which in practice means almost all employers close for them.

Where a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, faire le pont, bridging to the weekend, is customary but not an entitlement unless the agreement provides it. Plan project deadlines around May, which carries several holidays in close succession.

France observes 11 paid public holidays in 2026. Dates that fall at a weekend and any substitution rules are set out below; entitlement is separate from annual leave.

Maternity: 16 weeks for a first or second child, six before the birth and ten after, rising to 26 weeks from the third. Pay comes from social security up to a ceiling, with many collective agreements requiring the employer to top up to full salary.

Paternity and childcare: 28 calendar days, of which the first seven are compulsory and the employer may not permit work during them.

Sick leave: social security pays daily allowances after a three-day waiting period. The collective agreement frequently obliges the employer to maintain pay from day one, so check it before quoting a cost.

There is no at-will employment. Dismissal requires a real and serious cause, personal, disciplinary or economic, and a prescribed procedure: a summons, a preliminary meeting at which the employee may be assisted, then a reasoned letter. Skipping a step makes the dismissal irregular even where the cause is sound.

Notice is one month between six months and two years of service and two months thereafter, with the convention collective often requiring more, particularly for cadres.

Severance is due after eight months of service: one quarter of a month per year for the first ten years, then one third per year beyond. Unfair dismissal compensation follows a statutory scale keyed to length of service.

Rupture conventionnelle, a negotiated mutual termination, is widely used and requires administrative approval.

EU, EEA and Swiss nationals need no permit. Everyone else needs a work authorisation obtained by the employer before a long-stay visa is issued.

The Passeport Talent covers qualified professionals, researchers and company founders, runs up to four years and includes family. It avoids the labour-market test that slows the general route. Allow two to four months end to end.

URSSAF conducts more than 130,000 inspections a year and recovers over a billion euros. The recurring findings are misclassified contractors, the wrong collective agreement, mishandled RGDU relief and unpaid overtime.

Travail dissimulé, concealed employment, is a criminal offence, not merely a civil liability, and exposes directors personally.

French courts look at subordination in fact: who sets the hours, who supplies the tools, whether the person works for others, and whether they sit inside the organisation. The contract label carries little weight.

Answer for the France-based person you currently pay as a contractor. Indicative only, not legal advice.

Work backwards from the start date. A local hire through an EOR is realistic in two to three weeks; a non-EU national needs two to four months for the work authorisation and visa.

Before making the offer, confirm three things: the applicable collective agreement, whether the salary clears its minimum for the grade, and whether the role involves concluding contracts in France, which raises permanent-establishment questions.