Hire Employees in New Caledonia

New Caledonia is not mainland France, and the differences are not cosmetic. Tax, labour law and social protection are all Caledonian. As local guidance puts it bluntly: this is not SMIC, TVA and URSSAF, but SMG, TGC, CAFAT and RUAMM.

Two routes exist. A local entity gives direct employment with declaration to CAFAT; an Employer of Record removes that setup and acts as legal employer.

CAFAT is the Caisse de Compensation des Prestations Familiales, des Accidents du Travail et de Prévoyance des travailleurs de Nouvelle-Calédonie. It collects every contribution line.

Employees must be declared to CAFAT before they start, and a contract established. The permanent contract is the rule; fixed-term is the exception, restricted to defined cases, replacement, temporary increase in activity, seasonal work, and limited in both duration and grounds.

Employer contributions run approximately 30% to 38% of gross, with the exact figure depending on the salary band and on the work accident rate for your activity.

On health, tranche 1 runs to XPF 548,600 of monthly salary with a total rate of 14.52%. 11.67% employer and 2.85% employee.

Retirement is 14% in total, split 9.80% employer and 4.20% employee.

Beyond those, the employer share stacks family benefits, unemployment, work accidents, the housing fund (FSH), the training fund (FIAF) and a social dialogue contribution.

The work accident rate varies by activity and by your own claims history, so two employers paying the same salaries can face materially different totals.

Break-even rule of thumb: EOR fees begin to exceed the running cost of a Caledonian entity somewhere between 12 and 20 employees. See EOR vs Entity.

The 2026 rate position is genuinely unsettled, and the local employers’ federation says so directly.

A transfer of rates between branches has expired. Under a text currently under study, the transfer would no longer run between the RUAMM and family benefits but between retirement and family benefits, in the same proportions, with retroactive effect to 1 January 2026.

MEDEF-NC’s own assessment is that, absent a legal basis, it is impossible to state with certainty which contribution rates will apply in the coming months. If the text is adopted, the amounts due would be unchanged, but the allocation between branches would move.

That is an unusually candid warning from an employers’ body, and it should be read as one. Confirm current rates with CAFAT before quoting, and expect the branch split on payslips to be restated retroactively.

The ceilings themselves are stable. CAFAT RUAMM and other scheme ceilings applicable from 1 January 2026 remain unchanged, as do the housing fund and retirement ceilings.

Gross monthly salaries in CFP francs. Employer cost runs 30% to 38% above gross depending on band and activity.

Benchmarks below are gross monthly salaries in CFP francs. Employer cost runs 30% to 38% above gross depending on salary band and the work accident rate for your activity.

Payroll runs monthly. Each month you issue a payslip and remit contributions to CAFAT, the single heaviest item in the cost of an employee.

CAFAT collects health, retirement, family benefits, unemployment, work accidents, the housing fund, vocational training measures and the Contribution Calédonienne de Solidarité.

The CCS was raised to 3% on activity income from 1 April 2025. It is deducted from the salary but declared by the employer, so it sits on the employee side of the payslip while remaining the employer’s reporting responsibility.

One metropolitan link survives: the ceiling used for complementary retirement is the French social security ceiling, €48,060 a year and €4,005 a month for 2026. That figure is correlated to metropolitan price indices and therefore moves independently of Caledonian prices.

Caledonian income tax applies, administered by the Direction des Services Fiscaux. Consumption tax is the TGC, not French TVA.

The legal working week is 39 hours, or 169 hours a month. Not 35. This is the single figure that most often catches out employers arriving from mainland France, and it is the basis on which salaries are monthly-ised and the legal minimum calculated.

The Salaire Minimum Garanti is XPF 1,000.08 an hour from 1 August 2026, giving XPF 169,014 gross a month for a full-time 169-hour post, under a government arrêté.

Nobody may be paid below the SMG, and there are sanctions for underpayment. A separate agricultural minimum, the SMAG, applies to agricultural work.

Sector collective agreements set higher minima by occupation.

Declare the employee to CAFAT before they take up the post, and establish a written contract.

Use the permanent contract as the default. Fixed-term contracts are the exception, available only for replacement, temporary increases in activity or seasonal work, and constrained on both duration and grounds.

Check the sector collective agreement for occupational minima before setting pay.

The legal week is 39 hours and the month 169 hours, the figure used to mensualise salaries.

Because the SMG is expressed per hour and per 169-hour month, part-time and overtime calculations both key off that base rather than a 35-hour one.

Health contributions are banded, so pay crossing the XPF 548,600 tranche 1 ceiling changes the calculation.

New Caledonia observes the French national holiday calendar, with Citizenship Day on 24 September as a local addition.

New Caledonia observes the French national holiday calendar plus Citizenship Day on 24 September. Dates are set out below.

The RUAMM, the unified sickness and maternity insurance scheme, has been in force since 1 July 2002 and covers all insured persons: employees, the self-employed and their family members.

Family benefit entitlement carries an activity threshold. The claimant must reside in New Caledonia and carry out salaried activity under the labour code, and must either work at least 60 hours a month or receive remuneration of at least half the SMG. Entitlement opens through the work of either parent.

That threshold matters for part-time hires: a role below 60 hours a month and under half the SMG leaves the employee outside family benefits.

Work accident cover includes medical costs, allowances, rehabilitation, permanent incapacity annuities, dependants’ annuities on death and funeral costs.

Termination follows the Caledonian labour code, with notice and severance set by statute and collective agreement.

Final pay including accrued leave is due on separation and must appear in the CAFAT declaration for the period.

Where a former employee draws contributions calculated on an amount equivalent to the CAFAT retirement, the calculation uses the last employer’s contribution rate and corresponds to the employee share only.

New Caledonia is a French sui generis collectivity, and immigration is governed locally rather than by metropolitan rules alone. Confirm current requirements before committing to a start date.

The self-employed are treated distinctively. They must be affiliated to the RUAMM regardless of income, though they may be exempted from contribution if they hold total medical aid. Work accident and retirement contributions are voluntary for them.

The annual self-employed RUAMM contribution is set at 50 times the January hourly SMG, rounded up to the nearest hundred francs.

The currency is the CFP franc.

Importing metropolitan assumptions is the main risk. The vocabulary, the institutions and the numbers all differ. SMG not SMIC, TGC not TVA, CAFAT not URSSAF.

Assuming a 35-hour week is the most expensive version of that error. The legal week is 39 hours and the month 169, which changes both the minimum wage calculation and every mensualisation.

Treating 2026 rates as settled is the third. A branch transfer retroactive to 1 January 2026 currently lacks a legal basis, and the employers’ federation says the applicable rates cannot be stated with certainty.

Note also that the work accident rate varies with your own claims history; that the CCS is employee-borne but employer-declared; and that part-time roles below 60 hours a month may fall outside family benefits.

Confirm current contribution rates with CAFAT before quoting, and expect the branch allocation to be restated retroactively to 1 January 2026.

Build the payroll on a 39-hour week and a 169-hour month, declare employees to CAFAT before they start, default to permanent contracts, and check the sector agreement for occupational minima.

Do not carry over a metropolitan template, almost none of it transfers.