Employment law in France, set out primarily in the Code du travail, governs contracts, working hours, pay, leave, and termination for anyone performing work on French territory, regardless of the employer’s country of origin or the worker’s nationality. Its rules are mandatory: they override what an individual contract says whenever the contract gives the worker less. If you are hiring in France or being hired there, the national floor is the starting point, and the applicable sector-level collective agreement usually sits above it.
The Main Types of Employment Contracts
The default form of employment is the open-ended contract, the Contrat à durée indéterminée or CDI. The Labor Code treats it as the “normal and general” form of the working relationship, with no fixed end date.1Légifrance. France Code du travail L1221-2 – Le contrat de travail a duree indeterminee A full-time CDI does not legally require a written document, but employers almost always produce one to record duties, salary, and the trial period.
Trial periods are capped by law: two months for general workers, three months for technicians and supervisors, and four months for executives. A collective agreement may allow one renewal, doubling those maximums to four, six, and eight months.2Service Public. Trial Period for an Employee
Fixed-term contracts, or Contrats à durée déterminée (CDD), can only be used when a specific legal justification exists, such as replacing a temporarily absent employee or handling a short-term surge in workload. A CDD must be in writing, drafted in French, signed by the employee, and transmitted within two business days of the start date. If it is never put in writing at all, a judge can reclassify it as a CDI. These contracts generally cannot exceed 18 months including renewals.3Service Public. Conclusion of Fixed-Term Employment Contract When the CDD ends, the employee receives a precariousness bonus equal to 10% of total gross pay earned during the term.4Légifrance. France Code du travail L1243-8
Part-time contracts carry a floor of 24 hours per week unless the employee personally requests fewer hours in writing or a collective agreement provides otherwise. Part-time workers get the same protections as full-time employees on a prorated basis.
Non-compete clauses are only enforceable when they protect a legitimate business interest, are limited in time and geography, account for the nature of the role, and include financial compensation paid to the employee after departure. A clause without compensation is void. Employers can waive the clause before or at the time of departure, in which case no compensation is owed.
Minimum Wage and What Employees Actually Cost
France sets a national minimum wage called the SMIC (Salaire Minimum Interprofessionnel de Croissance), adjusted at least once per year on January 1. As of 2026, the gross monthly SMIC for a full-time employee stands at approximately €1,823. Many collective agreements set sector-specific minimums above that, so the effective floor for a given industry is often higher.
The gap between gross salary and take-home pay is significant, and the cost to the employer is higher still. Employers contribute roughly 45% of gross salary toward social security, covering health insurance, pension, unemployment, family benefits, and workplace accident insurance. The employee’s share runs between 20% and 23% of gross pay, deducted directly from each paycheck. On top of that, employees pay the General Social Contribution (CSG) at 9.2% and the Contribution to Social Debt Repayment (CRDS) at 0.5%, both calculated on 98.25% of gross salary. Many of these contributions are assessed up to a ceiling, which stands at €4,005 per month in 2026.5CLEISS. Rates and Ceilings of Social Security and Unemployment Contributions
Employers must also provide a complementary health insurance plan (mutuelle) to all private-sector employees and cover at least 50% of the premium. The practical result: an employee earning €3,000 gross costs the employer closer to €4,350 once charges are included, and the employee takes home around €2,350 after deductions. Budget for hiring in France using total employer cost, not the headline salary.
Working Hours and Overtime
The legal work week in France is 35 hours for full-time employees.6Légifrance. France Code du travail L3121-27 – Duree legale de travail Anything beyond that counts as overtime. By default, the first eight overtime hours in a week earn a 25% premium over normal pay, and each hour after that earns 50%. A collective agreement can lower these premiums but never below 10%.7Service Public. Overtime Work of a Private Sector Employee Some companies substitute compensatory rest for cash overtime.
Employees who regularly work more than 35 hours without being on a special arrangement often accumulate RTT days (Réduction du temps de travail), extra paid days off that bring the average work week back toward 35 hours. A worker clocking 39 hours per week might earn about one RTT day per month, depending on the company or sector agreement.
Senior managers and workers with substantial autonomy over their schedules can be placed on a forfait jours arrangement. Rather than tracking hours, these employees are measured by days worked per year, capped at 218 by law.8Eurofound. Fixed Working Days System for Managers to Be Reviewed Daily and weekly overtime rules do not apply, but the arrangement must be authorized by a collective agreement and confirmed in the individual contract.
Since 2017, French law has recognized a right to disconnect from professional digital tools outside working hours. Companies with 50 or more employees must negotiate the terms of this right during their annual quality-of-life discussions.9Service Public. Does an Employer Violate the Right to Disconnect of the Employee The law does not set specific penalties, but an employer who routinely contacts employees outside work hours risks claims tied to excessive workload or health-and-safety failures.
Paid Leave, Holidays, and Sick Days
Every employee accrues 2.5 working days of paid vacation for each month of actual work, adding up to five weeks (30 working days) per year.10Service Public Entreprendre. Paid Leave of Employees in the Private Sector The employer sets the leave schedule but cannot change departure dates less than one month before the planned start, except in exceptional circumstances. A continuous block of at least 12 working days must be taken between May 1 and October 31, and employers in many industries effectively shut down for part of August.
France recognizes 11 national public holidays throughout the year.11Service Public. Public Service Holidays Most are paid days off in practice, but the only one where the law strictly requires a paid day off across all sectors is May 1 (Labor Day). If you are asked to work on May 1, your employer must pay double your usual salary for that day.12Service Public. Can the Employer Make Its Employees Work on May 1 Whether the other holidays are paid days off depends largely on your collective agreement and company policy.
For sick leave, the social security system (Assurance Maladie) pays daily allowances starting on the fourth day of absence, after a mandatory three-day waiting period. You must send your doctor’s certificate to your employer and the social security office within 48 hours. The allowance covers roughly 50% of your daily base salary, subject to a ceiling tied to the social security cap. Employers must also supplement the social security payment for employees with at least one year of seniority, kicking in from the eighth day of absence unless a collective agreement is more generous. Combined, most employees keep close to 90% of their salary during the first 30 days of illness, tapering with longer absences.
Ending an Employment Relationship
Firing someone in France is nothing like at-will employment. Every dismissal for personal reasons must rest on a cause réelle et sérieuse: a real and serious reason that is objective, verifiable, and grave enough to justify ending the relationship. Poor performance, repeated misconduct, or professional incompetence can qualify, but the employer carries the burden of proof.
Before any final decision, the employer must send a formal letter summoning the employee to a preliminary meeting (entretien préalable). The letter must arrive by registered mail or hand delivery, and the meeting cannot take place until at least five working days later.13Légifrance. France Code du travail – Section 2 Entretien Prealable, Articles L1232-2 a L1232-5 The employee may bring a colleague or an external advisor. Only afterward can the employer issue a formal dismissal letter, which must spell out the precise reasons.
A notice period follows, during which the employee keeps working and receiving full pay. The statutory minimum is one month for employees with six months to two years of seniority, and two months for those with two or more years. Collective agreements often extend the notice period to three months for executives. The employer can waive the notice period but must pay the equivalent salary.14Service Public. Can an Employee Who Resigns or Is Dismissed Work for Another Employer Before the End of the Notice Period Employees with at least eight months of continuous service are entitled to statutory severance calculated on length of service and recent salary.
Economic dismissals follow stricter procedures. The employer must show genuine economic difficulties, technological changes, or a business reorganization that makes the position unnecessary. When 10 or more employees face redundancy within a 30-day period and the company has at least 50 employees, a formal Job Protection Plan (Plan de Sauvegarde de l’Emploi, or PSE) becomes mandatory. The PSE must include measures like retraining, internal reassignment, and job-search support, and it requires consultation with the employee representative body and approval from the regional labor administration (DREETS).15Business France. Dismissal on Economic Grounds
The rupture conventionnelle offers a less adversarial way to end a CDI. Both sides agree to the separation, sign a formal agreement, and observe a 15-calendar-day cooling-off period during which either can retract. The agreement is then submitted to the regional labor authority for approval, a safeguard designed to verify the employee’s consent was genuine.16Service Public. Conventional Break-Up of a Private Sector Employee The employee receives at least the statutory severance amount and remains eligible for unemployment benefits on the same terms as a dismissed worker. That combination makes it extremely popular.
If an employee successfully challenges a dismissal before the labor court (Conseil de prud’hommes), damages are governed by a statutory scale known as the Barème Macron. The scale sets both a floor and a ceiling based on years of seniority. An employee with five years of service at a company with 11 or more workers can receive between three and six months of gross salary in damages. The minimum starts at one month for employees with at least one year of service, and the maximum rises gradually with seniority.
Harassment and Discrimination
French law prohibits workplace discrimination on 25 separate grounds, including origin, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, political opinions, union activity, physical appearance, health status, and religion.17Service Public. Discrimination at Work The list is broader than in many other countries, covering characteristics like family name, place of residence, and vulnerability related to economic circumstances. Discrimination during hiring, promotion, pay decisions, or termination can trigger both civil liability and criminal prosecution.
The Labor Code also imposes a broad safety obligation on employers to prevent and respond to harassment, whether sexual or psychological (called “moral harassment” in French law). Employers must set up internal reporting channels and investigate claims promptly, regardless of whether the employee uses the word “harassment” in their complaint. Failure to act can expose the company to damages even if the employer did not directly cause the harassment. In January 2025, the French Supreme Court recognized the concept of “institutional moral harassment,” extending liability to situations where a company’s management policies themselves create systemic harm.
Companies with 50 or more employees must publish a Gender Equality Index each year, scoring up to 100 points across indicators like pay gaps and promotion rates. Organizations scoring below 75 must implement corrective measures.
Employee Representation and Collective Agreements
Any company that reaches 11 employees for 12 consecutive months must set up a Social and Economic Committee (Comité Social et Économique, or CSE).18Code du travail numérique. France Code du travail L2311-2 – Comite social et economique In smaller companies, the CSE handles employee grievances and health-and-safety issues. In companies with 50 or more employees, its role expands: management must consult the CSE on financial performance, strategic plans, working conditions, and any proposed restructuring. The committee can hire outside experts to audit the company’s accounts and challenge decisions it considers harmful to workers.
Sector-level collective bargaining agreements (conventions collectives) are the operational backbone of French employment law. Negotiated between trade unions and employer associations, these agreements cover entire industries and typically set standards above the Labor Code’s minimums for pay scales, notice periods, severance, training rights, and supplementary leave. Once the Ministry of Labour extends an agreement, it binds every employer in that sector, whether they participated in the negotiations or not. For any specific employment question in France, checking the applicable convention collective is as important as reading the Labor Code itself.