Guide

The SMIC: France's minimum wage, gross and net

By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026

France's SMIC is €12.31 an hour gross in 2026, which service-public.fr's table nets to €9.74 after employee contributions — €1,867.02 gross a month and €1,477.93 net, €22,404.20 gross across the year. Under-18s with less than six months in the trade can be paid reduced rates: €11.08 at 17, €9.85 at 16 and under. It rises automatically with inflation, and the government can add a coup de pouce at any time.

The table: gross, net, hourly, monthly, annual

Service-public.fr publishes the SMIC as one table, and the gross/net split is the part most foreign readers miss: €12.31 an hour gross · €9.74 net after employee social contributions; €1,867.02 a month gross · €1,477.93 net; €22,404.20 a year gross. French salary conversations happen in gross (brut), payslips land in net — the ~21% gap between them is the contribution wedge, and it is the first number to internalise before comparing any French offer to one from home.

Minors get statutory reductions if they have under six months' professional practice in the branch: €11.08 at 17, €9.85 at 16 and under. An employer paying below the applicable SMIC faces a fine per the same page.

Source: Service-public.fr, F2300 — montant du Smic, read 4 September 2026.

How it moves, and what sits above it

The SMIC is indexed: when inflation against the reference index passes the trigger, the rate rises automatically in the same proportion — and the government can grant an extra coup de pouce increase at any moment. So the 2026 figures above are a floor with a built-in escalator, not a fixed annual value; the service-public page is the place to re-read at each revision.

Above the SMIC sit the conventions collectives: where your sector's agreed minimum exceeds the SMIC, the employer owes the convention rate. The same logic as the Dutch CAO — the statutory floor is the beginning of the answer, your sector's agreement is the end of it. For comparing floors across borders, our Europe-wide table puts France's €1,867 against its neighbours.

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For the visa file

French work and residence routes reference income in their own terms, and several unofficial guides wrongly quote the SMIC as a universal visa threshold — the actual bars per route, quoted from the government sources, live in our income-requirement tool. The insurance side of a French work move is its own question with a clean answer: French employment enrols you in the public system, and our France work-visa guide plus the France hub cover the entry-period details. When the route is set, the cover question takes one call:

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Common questions

What is the minimum wage in France in 2026?

€12.31 an hour gross (€9.74 net), €1,867.02 a month gross (€1,477.93 net), €22,404.20 a year gross — service-public.fr's published SMIC table. Under-18s with less than six months in the trade can be paid €11.08 (17) or €9.85 (16 and under).

Is the SMIC quoted gross or net?

Both exist and the difference is large: €12.31 gross vs €9.74 net per hour. French offers are discussed in gross; payslips pay net. Comparing a gross SMIC to a net figure from home overstates French pay by roughly a fifth.

Does the SMIC rise automatically?

Yes — it is indexed to inflation for the lowest-income households and rises automatically when the trigger is met, plus the government can add a discretionary coup de pouce at any time.