There are many reasons why a company may want to hire employees in France. As well as having a labor pool of highly-skilled workers, it has the second largest GDP in the EU and is one of the top tourist destinations in the world. However, there are many challenges to hiring in France, including the complicated legal requirements.

To avoid needing to set up your own legal entity in France and navigate the complexities of French labor law alone, one solution is to use a portage salarial international.

How Does Portage Salarial International Work?

A portage salarial international is an umbrella or payroll company specific to France. It allows you to hire contractors and permanent employees alike without first establishing a presence in the country.

A portage salarial international acts as your employer of record (EOR), which means it is the legal employer of the worker, although the employee (called the salarié porté) works on projects and assignments that come directly from you. Under this arrangement, the portage company provides workers with a contract, adds them to its own payroll, and pays them their salary after making the necessary deductions. You’ll receive an invoice from the portage company to cover the worker’s salary and the company’s fees.

The portage company also handles all tax, benefit, and social security requirements — which saves you from needing to learn French labor law.

What Is Portage Salarial International For?

A portage salarial international is useful if you want to hire someone based in France without requiring the worker to relocate. You may also want to avoid the hassle of acquiring a work visa for an employee, the worker may want to remain in France, or you may need the employee to stay in the country for business reasons.

Alternatively, it may be more cost effective to keep the employee in France, such as if it is possible for the worker to carry out the work remotely.

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Consultant Expatrié vs Consultant Détaché

Workers hired by a portage company receive the status of either a consultant détaché or a consultant expatrié, depending on where they are based.

As a consultant détaché, workers receive benefits under French social security. To qualify, they must carry out their work either in a European Union member country or in a nation outside the EU that has a bilateral agreement with France. They are allowed to maintain their status of consultant détaché for an unlimited time.

Workers who carry out work in other countries receive a consultant expatrié status. Although they won’t be covered by French social security, they’ll receive benefits from the country where they are based. However, they may be able to apply to retain social security while they are abroad if they meet certain conditions. In this case, social benefits are valid for a period of 36 months per assignment (renewal is possible only once).

What to Know About Hiring in France

If you choose to hire employees directly, you’ll need to ensure you adhere French labor law. Some key aspects include:

Code du Travail

The French Labor Code is called Code du Travail. It provides a framework for relationships between employers and workers.

Types of Contracts

Employers have the choice of two types of contracts: contrat à durée indéterminée (CDI) is open ended and contrat à durée déterminée (CDD) has a fixed end date.

Minimum Wage

The statutory minimum wage is called salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance. Since November 1, 2024, it has been €11.88 per hour.

Working Hours

The standard working week is 35 hours, after which employees are entitled to overtime. For the first eight hours, they receive a 25% pay increase. For any subsequent hours, they receive a 50% pay increase.

Alternatively, an employer may provide compensatory time off for overtime, called repos compensateur. In either case, employees may work up to 48 hours a week but not more than an average of 44 hours over a 12-week period.

Employees in France receive 2.5 working days of leave a month. In addition, they are entitled to a daily subsistence allowance through their insurance plans when on sick leave. Lastly, parental leave is available to workers who have enrolled in social security at least 10 months before childbirth and have worked at least 150 hours in the 90 days before the start of their leave.

Mothers receive six weeks before birth and 10 weeks after, fathers receive four days immediately after birth and 21 days within the following six months, and adopting parents receive 10 weeks for one child or 22 weeks for more than one child.

Social Security Contributions

Employers and workers need to make various types of social security contributions.

Terminations

To terminate a CDI contract, employers need a valid reason. Severance depends on whether the worker has been at the company more or less than 10 years.

Collective Bargaining

It is common for employees to use collective bargaining, especially through trade unions. For instance, collective bargaining agreements may set a cap on overtime hours per year that is different than the typical 220 hours.

The Advantages of Portage Salarial International

A portage salarial international is a convenient solution for both employers and the workers they want to hire.

No Need for a Legal Entity

The biggest advantage for employers is there is no need to set up a legal entity in France. This is a time-consuming process that may only be worthwhile if you intend to hire a large team of workers.

In contrast, using a portage company makes financial sense for any number of workers (even a single employee) and the hiring process is almost immediate.

Adhere to Regulations

Since the portage company is the employer, you don’t have to worry about understanding regulations and ensuring you adhere to French law. Instead, you’ll be able to focus on your core work and growing your business.

Employee Benefits

Workers in France often prefer to be employees due the job security and other benefits this brings. For example, a CDI results in steady income (which may not be the case for contractors), workers receive a pay slip that gives them proof of earnings (which is useful for things like applying for a mortgage), and employees receive unemployment benefits, a pension, and health insurance.

Hiring in France and Beyond

A portage salarial international is useful if you want to hire workers without setting up a legal entity in France — but it will mostly give you access just to French workers. This is because these companies are designed for hiring in France and French workers based abroad.

If you want to enter other markets, a better solution is to use an international staffing solution that operates across the globe. RemotePeople connects you with top talent in more than 150 countries and acts as your employer of record to instantly add these workers to your team.