Who doesn’t love the famous landmarks in Paris, the blue waters of the French Riviera, and the countless French bakeries filled with delicious croissants and macaroons? But apart from all this, France is also known for its rising population of highly educated and skilled workers. Let us show you why and how you can hire and manage your remote team from this magical country.
If you’re considering hiring your next candidate in France, you’re in the right place. At WorkMotion, we have helped hundreds of businesses onboard their remote hires, and we have achieved excellent expertise in the country. Our tech solutions and team of experts will make this incredibly easy for you.
Calculate net salary in France post deductions and compare it with the salary in other countries instantly
Receive process support by an experienced team of experts & pay your talent on time and in their local currency.
Identify taxable talent expenses easily. No more manual sorting & human errors. Get 100% protection from tax liabilities
Send laptops and other devices to your remote employees in France through our platform with just a few clicks.
Easily onboard your remote talent in France through our Employer of Record (EOR) solution. Our subsidiaries and network partners make this process fast and 100% compliant.
UTC+1
25 days
€1766.92
EUR
11 days
Monthly
The French are creative and innovative. France has adopted a policy to develop clusters—“pôles de compétitivité”— hubs of industry intelligence and expertise, bringing together research institutes, training centers and businesses. In general, French employees are known for their high skill levels and qualifications. This is due to free public education and great training opportunities.
French workers are known for opting to go for higher education and being adaptable to changes in organisation or work methods.
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located in northwestern Europe, with a real GDP growth rate of 7% in 2021. The country borders the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel between Belgium and Spain, to the southeast of the UK bordering the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Spain. It is the largest agricultural producer in Europe and is among the world’s largest economies. France is a part of many organizations and plays an influential global role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, NATO, the G-7, the G-20, the EU, and other multilateral organizations. *Please note that the official currency is the currency of remuneration when employed through WorkMotion in France.
Paris
67.62 M
20%
An employee can work on public holidays. Non-working public holidays are set out in a company or institutional agreement or, failing that, a branch convention or agreement. In the absence of an agreement, it is the employer who specifies non-working public holidays.
Only May 1 is compulsorily non-working for all employees; however, it is possible to work on May 1 in establishments and services that cannot interrupt their activity.
In France, 11 public holidays are provided for by law (Labor Code, Article L3133-1). The Alsace region and the Moselle department observe two additional days. Unlike most countries, these holidays do not shift when they fall during the weekend.
The holidays mentioned below are valid for the year 2025.
National Holidays | ||
Date | Holiday Name | Extra Information |
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January 1 | New Year’s Day (Jour de l’an) |
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April 21 | Easter Monday (Lundi de Pâques) |
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May 1 | Labor Day (Fête du premier mai) |
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May 8 | World War II Victory Day (Fête du huitième mai/Jour de la Victoire 45) |
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May 29 | Ascension Day (Jour de l’Ascension) |
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June 9 | Whit Monday (Pentecost Monday/Lundi de Pentecôte) |
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July 14 | Bastille Day (Fête nationale) |
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August 15 | Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Assomption) |
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November 1 | All Saints’ Day (La Toussaint) |
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November 11 | Armistice Day (Jour d’armistice) |
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December 25 | Christmas Day (Noël) |
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The approximate time for sharing the contract with an employee in France is 6 days assuming no special requests or changes to our standard employment contract. Any such requests or changes would need to undergo internal or external review, directly leading to a time delay. If all talent data is available, the contract can be generated immediately.
Labor Law, Article L.8241-1 stipulates that “any profit-making operations, the sole purpose of which is the supply of employees, is forbidden”. In contrast to many other countries, therefore, direct employment by the “user” company is always the rule in France, except for employment through the following structures: temporary working agencies, ‘portage’ companies, job-sharing employment agencies, model agencies, and sports associations. ‘Portage salarial’, provided through a registered ‘portage salarial’ company, is, therefore, a legal exception to this direct employment rule. It can normally only be used for autonomous consultants who provide services to clients they have found themselves.
Transparent Working Conditions
The employer gives the employee one or more written documents containing the main information relating to the employment relationship.
“An employee who has not received the information mentioned in the first paragraph may only apply to the competent judge to obtain it after having given formal notice to his employer to provide him with the required documents or, where applicable, to complete the documents handed over (Law 2023-171, Section 19).
Fixed-term Missions
WorkMotion Services France SAS does not offer fixed-term contracts. However, we can offer fixed-term missions in permanent contracts. Under Portage, the employees are more likely considered as a special type of freelancers who enjoy the freedom of average freelancers (e.g.: finding their own Clients/mission, managing their own working time freely; receiving daily rates instead of monthly salary, etc.) but also can have some social guarantees (e.g.: paid sick leave, pension entitlement, etc.) compared to normal employees.
As a result, a Portage permanent contract is considered a framework agreement between the Portage employee and the Portage company (=WM France Services SAS.). It regulates only the general relationship of the parties, but to describe each and every mission detail, it must have an Annex that is fully mission-specific.
This mission-specific Annex, however, has its own limitation of a maximum of 36 months. However, as the Portage employee is akin to a freelancer, they are free to accept missions in the future with the same or different clients. Please note that all permanent contracts have a cap of 36 months for a mission with the same client, making a fixed-term contract an unlikely choice for any party.
Permanent Contract (CDI)
The full-time permanent contract (CDI) is not necessarily the subject of a written contract.
Most often, and regardless of the expected working time, a written employment contract is signed and then meets certain legal requirements. When it is drawn up in writing, the CDI must be drawn up in French. The content of a CDI has no specific guidelines unless the collective agreement provides for compulsory information.
In practice, the CDI must provide the following information:
Identity and address of the parties
Function and professional qualification
Workplace
Working time
Remuneration (salary and bonuses)
Paid vacation
Duration of the trial period
Notice periods in the event of termination of the contract
Possibly, non-competition or mobility clause.
218-days schedule
Executive employees who have entered a so-called “forfait-jours” are not subject to the usual rules concerning working time. The working time is measured in worked days per year, the employee would work a maximum of 218 days.
The employee benefits from a certain number of days of rest planned in advance. However, the employee may waive part of their rest days. In return, they benefit from an increase in their salary for the additional working days, with a limit of going up to 229 days annually. An agreement must then be established in writing between the employee and the employer. An addendum to the individual flat-rate agreement specifies the increase in salary for additional workdays. The rate of increase for salary is set at least 10%.
More information on working hours in France may be found on the official website of the French administration.
Resting Times
All workers must be allowed a daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours. The minimum weekly rest period is 35 consecutive hours (11 hours plus a 24 consecutive hour rest period per week). Sundays are, in general, considered rest days.
No minimum legal duration is imposed on senior executives.
More information on resting times in France may be found on the official website of the French administration.
Any hours of work accomplished, at the employer’s request, beyond the legal duration of 35 hours is an additional hour. The senior executive and employees working on “forfait-jours” are not affected by overtime. In the absence of a collective agreement or company agreement, overtime worked beyond the legal weekly duration is increased by:
The notice period served by the employee or the employer varies according to their seniority in the company, under the following conditions:
Employment Tenure | Notice Period |
Less than 6 months tenure | No legal minimum period |
6 months to 2 years | 1 month |
More than 2 years | 2 months |
Collective agreements for managers generally set higher notice periods: around two months at nine months tenure, three months at four years, and four months at 20 years. There are prescribed notice periods for fixed-term contract employees and employees under probation as well.
The employee is entitled to a leave of 2.5 working days per month of actual work with the same employer. The total duration of the required leave may not exceed 30 days (25 working days) for a full year of work. Annual leave entitles the employee to an indemnity equal to one tenth of the total gross remuneration received by the employee during the reference period.
Parental leave is offered as an additional leave over the annual leave. Employees under the age of 21 on April 30 of the previous year benefit from two additional days of annual leave per dependent child. This leave is reduced to one day if the legal leave does not exceed six days. There is also additional leave in case of education and sickness of a child that is provided on an unpaid basis.
The pregnant employee has the right to 16 weeks of maternity leave (in principle, six weeks before the expected date of childbirth and 10 weeks after). To qualify for maternity benefits, the employee must be insured for at least 10 months before their pregnancy begins. In the event of a pathological condition certified by a medical certificate, maternity leave may be extended by two weeks before the expected date of childbirth and by four weeks after it.
Adoption leave is 16 weeks. This leave is increased to 22 weeks for the adoption of more than one child. If the adopted child is at least the third child in the household, the leave period is extended to 18 weeks.
Paternity leave has been lengthened as of July 1, 2021.The duration is different for single and multiple births.
All leave must be taken within the six months following the child’s birth.
A new category of leave, compensated by maternity insurance, is offered when a child or dependent under the age of 25 dies as of January 1, 2020. The three-day waiting period necessary for sick leave is waived off for this leave. Leave is prescribed following the child’s death within 13 weeks of death. It must be taken within one year of the death and lasts a maximum of eight or 15 days, which can be divided up depending on the insured’s professional situation.
As of January 2023, the following Social Security statutory deductions are payable by the employer: *This rate varies based on company size and risks. **The rate of 3.45% applies to businesses eligible for the general decrease in contributions and to annual salaries lower than or equal to 3.5 times the legal minimum wage (SMIC). ***The upper limit is equal to four monthly social security ceilings (4 x 3,666 €).
Employees working in France are eligible for health insurance through their social security contributions (cotisations socialise).
Social security also pays for daily cash benefits during certified sick leave. This benefit is paid at 50% of the basic average salary for a maximum of 360 daily benefits over any three-year period.
The eligibility rules for accident-at-work benefits in kind are the same as those for in-kind health insurance benefits, with the exception that all care (medical, surgical, and pharmacy) in this case is covered by the Fund at a rate of 100% while it is 70% for regular health insurance.
Condition | Benefits |
Day of accident | Full daily wage paid by the employer. |
The first 28 days of prescribed medical leave | A daily allowance of 60% of daily wage |
29th day – 3 months | A daily allowance of 80% of daily wage |
More than 3 months | The claimant’s benefit rate can be revised upward in the event of a general wage rise |
To qualify for unemployment benefits (Return to employment benefit /”ARE”), the claimant must meet the following seven requirements: Be registered as a job seeker; Not to have reached the age and number of quarters required for a full-rate pension or not qualify for early retirement; Effective December 1, 2021: Have worked at least six months (i.e. 130 days or 910 hours) over the previous 24 months; Be involuntarily unemployed or a proven, genuine, substantive career change plan; Be physically fit for work; Be engaged in a substantive ongoing search for employment; Reside in the geographical area covered by France’s unemployment insurance program.
The French pension system is made up of three pillars:
A French pension is typically available to those who have lived and worked in France for a set number of years (must have worked for at least 10 years) and meet other conditions. The maximum pension amount can only be claimed after working in France for 40–43 years. However, earners can also pay into a supplementary pension and/or private pension plan for more pension security.
