HR & Payroll Services Provider in France
Employer of Record (EOR) Services in France
The Le Cheminant International partner in France is based west of Paris, and can employ staff on your behalf. This is known as an “Employer of Record” service, and means that so our clients do not need to set up a legal entity there.
France is one of our most successful countries for HR outsourcing, helped by the fact that several of Le Cheminant International staff at “head office” are fluent in French. If you contact us, we will happily provide (free) copies of typical employment contracts and sample salary sheets.
We have two Le Cheminant International Payroll Partners for France, one based in Nice, the other in the Paris Region: they have a sound knowledge of French payroll regulations and company set up practices. Both are used to running payrolls for foreign companies just registered as Employers in France.
CONTACT OUR TEAM: Email info@lecheminantinternational.comor Tel +44 (0)7958 173708 UK
Payroll Outsourcing Services in France
Payroll Outsourcing Services in France Our most successful global outsourcing service - WE SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE
French payroll administration companies
C alled “Experts Comptables” are permitted (since about 2011) to pay clients’ employees, the social security departments, and benefit providers on behalf of clients. Alternatively, they can simply do the calculations of social charges and net pay and produce a paysheet: they send the paysheet to the employer: the employer pays the employee direct or through a payroll consolidator.
E very 3 months the payroll provider will send to the employer a summary of social charges payable, together with the account numbers and references and these too can be paid by the French payroll company OR can be paid directly by the client, or a Le Cheminant International “Consolidator” can do this for you. Payment of salaries is normally monthly. Semi-monthly payments, common in USA are almost unheard of and may pose problems in calculating paysheets.
T here is an alternative whereby the client can open a payroll account and give the local payroll partners authority to authorise salary payment from the account.
Three ways to set up your business in France - Staff Employment
Opening a branch
As in most countries if a company is carrying on a profit-making business there should be at least a Branch of the company opened in France. A Branch will be subject to corporate profits tax – a way to minimize this is to reward the branch on a commission or “cost plus” so that the Branch revenue just covers the Branch costs. Again, usually the “Payroll Services Partners” will be happy to give advice on this aspect
French Certificate of Good Conduct
When first starting up in a country however many foreign employers prefer to just register for Social Security as a foreign entity, or foreign employer with the employee being responsible for the good conduct of the company in France. There is in fact a special French official form developed for doing just this. Obviously if the company expands then it becomes more necessary to open a Branch to permit normal operations.
Le Cheminant working with you
The Le Cheminant International partner in France specialises in employing the staff on your behalf. This is called an “Employer of Record” service.
As a Swiss/UK company Le Cheminant International not only has experience of working over many years in all parts of the world, but in the case of France has several French speakers who work closely with clients across France.
Employment in France
... is singular for several reasons
Employment Contract
The employment contract must be in French. We can provide (free) a draft employment contract if you wish.
Foreign companies often worry about the security of employment in France- thinking it is difficult to terminate staff. They often therefore elect to have fixed term contracts-e.g. 6-12 months. One drawback with this approach is that:
- It is difficult to attract the best talent: employees will not easily trade “secure” employment for effectively temporary employment.
- Probationary Periods for fixed term employment are limited to 1 month whereas normally probationary periods are of 3 month’s duration.
- There is a 10% “Prime de Precarité” -literally a precariousness bonus of 10% of all remuneration over the period of the employment -UNLESS the employment becomes “permanent”.
Collective Agreements
All employees in France are notionally attached to a “Convention Collective” or Collective Agreement for their industry. The agreements are very similar but there are variations between industry in terms of vacation, social charges, and termination indemnities. So, a client wanting a routine payroll administration service will have to define what their business is. As an example, “Telecoms” would not be detailed enough. “Provision and implementation of routers for wide area networks” would be ok. Our Payroll Partner companies will be able to help defining the correct Convention Collective.
This comment does not apply though if a client uses our Employer of Record or PEO service. Then the Convention Collective of our local partner firm providing the service applies.
Pension and Savings Plans
Apart from very senior executives, pension arrangements are normally provided by the French State. Private pensions are comparatively rare. However, “401k” type plans, common in USA are found. These are called “Plans d’Epargne Enterprise” and the Employer agrees to match or exceed a saving level agreed to by the employee. The schemes need to be registered to be tax effective.
Social Security in France
Total MANDATORY “add on” for Employer social charges is around 46% of gross remuneration. This includes unemployment insurance, pension, medical insurance, and accident insurance.
Additional Medical coverage insurance with organisations called “Mutuelles” is normally provided in multinationals and is anyway mandatory of the employee is of management or “Cadre” level. Some of our clients provide this at no charge to the employees; some require employees to pay a part of the premium. The provision of medical coverage is good value and tax effective.
If the employer of Record or “PEO” service is used, then this is already available.
For “Cadre” or management employees the Employer must take out an insurance called “Prevoyance”. This is disability insurance and the applicable Convention Collective sets the minimum levels. It is supposed to be in place when the employee starts work but is frequently done retroactively. It is often combined with the “Mutuelle”. The payroll administrators will normally organise this and if the Employer of Record service is used then this is automatically taken care of.
Social charges payable by the employee and deducted from salary are around 20% of gross pay. The taxable salary is then the Gross minus the Employee Social Charges deducted. When a French employee talks of “net salary” he or she often means net of social charges, but before tax.
Contact us
- Le Cheminant have offices in London & Geneva