New rules regarding overtime in France

With France’s new finance law of the 16^th of August 2022 now ratified, significant emergency measures have been put in place in order to protect France’s purchasing power.

One of these measures include changes to the tax burden on overtime hours. In France, overtime is legally defined as any hours worked in addition to legal working hours as stipulated in work contracts.

From the 16^th of August, employees will now be exempt from income tax up to an annual limit of €7,500 (this used to be €5,000). There are strict rules however about the amount of overtime an employee can undertake and they cannot exceed:

10 hours per day
48 hours per week
220 hours per year (in some cases)

If they are exceeded, the employer is obliged to give ‘rest days off’ – COR (‘Contrepartie obligatoire en repos’).

Moreover, companies with 20 to 249 employees will now be exempt from paying employer’s social security contributions on their staff overtime.

With these new rules and regulations in mind, if you think that you might need extra support with your employee’s payroll, please do not hesitate to get in touch.