Here is the journey through work life - from unemployment, to finding a job, enjoying the perks, then losing your job.
Emploi
Well, we may as well start easy. Emploi, as you may have guessed, means "employment". French newspapers will often have their own "Emploi" sections if you want to read up on the latest employment news.
Pôle emploi (now 'France Travail')
With employment comes unemployment, which typically leads people to France's national job centre - known as the Pôle emploi. They recently changed their name to France Travail, but many people will still refer to them as Pôle emploi.
CV
Yes, you'll need one of these in French. Don't be tempted to put resumé at the top. This is a pesky false friend.
READ MORE: Ask the expert: How to write the perfect French resume
Entretien d'embauche
If your CV is good enough then it should lead to a job interview - an "entretien d'embauche" or just an entretien. The French word 'interview' is another false friend - it refers specifically to the type of interview that a celebrity does with a newspaper or TV station.
Contrat de travail
Got the job? Well done. Now you'd better sign your employment contract, known in France as a "contrat de travail". This is a hugely important piece of paper, and is often needed when moving into a new house, applying for a bank account (or indeed a bank loan).
CDI
If you're lucky, the paper that you sign will be CDI contract, which stands for "Contrat à Durée Indeterminée" – or an open-ended contract. This essentially means you are a permanent employee.
This is important in job terms, but will also make it easier for you to do things like rent an apartment or get a mortgage or bank loan.
CDD
The other option is that you're on a CDD (Contrat à Durée Determinée), or a fixed-term contract. It may eventually turn into a CDI if it works out well, especially as there are limits in French law on how often a company can extend a CDD (although there are also some loopholes in this legislation).
There are other types of job contracts on offer that depending on your line of work could see you end up a pigiste (shift worker), an intermittent (occasional worker often employed in arts scene) or a saisonnier (a seasonal worker who might do a ski season or wine harvest).
SMIC
Time to talk pay. France's minimum wage, known as SMIC, is €11.65 as of 2024, or €1,766.92 a month (pre-tax).
Salariés
Employees - paid workers (as opposed to self-employed), usually at the bottom of the company structure without any managerial responsibilities.
Cadres
On the other end of the spectrum, you have the "cadres" - these are the managers, the executives. These lucky ones get better salaries and usually more perks (although on the down side they are exempt from France's 35-hour work week law).
Auto-entrepreneur
Another possibility is to run your own business, or set yourself up as a freelancer or contractor. If this is what you want to do, you might want to set up under the auto-entrepreneur system - previously known as micro-entrepreneur this is a simplified business structure for people or small businesses which earn under a certain amount per year.
Keep in mind that you will have to work with URSAFF - the administrators who collect social security contributions that fund a large part of France’s labyrinthine social security system, including, notably, health insurance.
READ MORE: URSSAF: What is it, how it works, and how it affects you
Ticket restos
Time to talk perks. "Tickets restos" or luncheon vouchers are mandatory in offices with no on-site cafeteria or self-service kitchen. Managers and workers split the cost 50/50, and employees end up with vouchers they can use in most supermarkets and restaurants around the country. These days, the vouchers are usually digital rather than the paper versions.
RTT
If you are covered by the 35-hour working week (and despite its fame there are actually a lot of French workers which this legislation doesn't cover) then bosses must compensate you if you work more than 35 hours per week. You would therefore be entitled to RTT days (Réduction du Temps de Travail).
These are in addition to your usual paid holidays and are part of the reason why some French workers (usually those in the public sector) are able to take the whole of August off, plus holidays at Christmas and Easter.
READ MORE: These are the days off that workers in France are entitled to
Convention collectif
Most jobs are covered by conventions collectif, which are collective bargaining agreements struck between employee representatives and companies, sectors or even whole professions. These often include extra benefits such as more holiday, extended maternity leave or overtime payments.
Treizième mois
This is a lot less common than it used to be, but some businesses offer a "thirteenth month" of pay - it usually means that the normal salary is divided by 13 (instead of by 12) so it doesn't necessarily mean that you get more overall, but the 13th month itself is usually paid in the run-up to Christmas.
Comité d'enterprise
This is a kind of council in some companies that offers you anything from cheap cinema tickets, holiday discounts and a nice wad of vouchers to spend at Christmas.
Impôts sur le revenue
Oh, the famous French taxman. No, it's not all laughter and perks in the French work place. Be ready for the income tax.
READ MORE: EXPLAINED: Who has to do a tax declaration in France?
Prélèvements à la source
Employees will usually have their income tax deduced at source - like PAYE in English. This is a relatively recent addition in France, coming into effect in 2017. Previously, income tax for employees was done along the same lines as self-employed or business owners - you did the annual tax declaration then received a bill.
Confusingly, employees whose income tax is deducted at source still have to complete the annual tax declaration - even if they have nothing to pay having already had their tax deducted.
Fiche de paie
France's payslips are notoriously complicated, but they are important.
Payslips in France are used for more than simply confirming your salary, they are a way of proving your income and you may be asked to supply your last three months' payslips (also called bulletin de paie) for several events such as renting a new home or applying for a visa or residency permit, so it's important that you have a complete set of payslips.
READ MORE: How to understand your French payslip
Mutuelle
This is a top up health insurance that pays for the portion of your medical expenses that the state doesn't reimburse. If you choose to get this, then your employer must pay at least half of the monthly cost, although big companies often offer fully-paid policies for their employees.
READ MORE: Health insurance in France: What you need to know about a mutuelle
Métro, boulot, dodo
This phrase - literally "subway, work, and sleepy time" - is a great little phrase that means 'work, sleep, slog' or just 'the rate race'. Basically, you're living to work. Perhaps time to make things interesting?
Augmentation de salaire
Not happy with your salary? Then why not ask for a pay rise, or an "augmentation de salaire"?
Licenciements
Hopefully you won't hear this word in your company, but if you do it spells bad news. It means lay offs or redundancies.
READ MORE: Mythbuster: Is it actually impossible to be sacked in France?
Rupture du contrat
This is the umbrella term that means a termination of your contract, or the "rupture du contrat", whether instigated by you or your boss.
Rupture conventionelle
This is a termination of employment that is mutually agreed upon by employer and employee. This is the ideal scenario as it means you qualify for unemployment benefits or other benefits, while for the employer it means things have been done properly and they're less likely to be hauled before the employment court for unfaur dismissal.
Pot de départ
This is what you'll have if you leave on good terms. Pot de départ means leaving drinks, as opposed to the normal Friday pot, which is just an end-of-the-week drink with colleagues. These are often held in the workplace with wine, beer and snacks.
Chomeur
Now you're an unemployed person, or job-seeker, you are known as a "chomeur".
Chomage
Unemployment itself is known as "chomage" this refers to both the general concept (eg the unemployment rate) and also the benefits that job-seekers receive.
You can qualify as long as you have worked in France for a certain period and lost your job involuntarily (except for the 'rupture conventionnelle') or your CDD ended, and you are registered with the Pôle emploi and are actively seeking work.
New legal changes have meant that the abandon de poste - or workers who may have stopped showing up to their jobs, with hopes of qualifying for unemployment benefits afterwards - will no longer be able to do so because of the presumption of a voluntary resignation.
READ MORE: How generous is France's unemployment system?
If you lost your job and you were in France on a visa or residency card related to your work status, then you will be able to renew that status as long as you have rights to chomage - because simply being on chomage means that you have already worked in France and therefore paid into the system. More info on 'status changes' here.
Allocations chômage
This is the actual amount that you will receive if you are on benefits while looking for work. Unlike some countries, France doesn't have a flat rate for payments, instead the money that you will receive is based on a percentage of your former salary.
It's quite complicated and the system has been revised several times in recent years, but it usually works out at 57 percent of average salary during their last 12 months of work. The most common reasons that foreigners don't qualify for chomage is not having worked for long enough in France before losing their job.
RSA - Revenue de solidarité active
This is a top-up benefit that you may be able to claim it while you look for work, although there are various and varied conditions.
Comments