There is a significant difference between the gross salary stated in your contract and the amount actually paid into your account. Even without taking employer’s contributions into account, employee contributions, the CSG and the CRDS are deducted to fund social security. Whilst some refer to these as ‘costs’ – which is what they are in accounting terms – others prefer to call them deferred income. How are they broken down? Here’s what you need to know to form an opinion on the various candidates in the presidential election.

From gross pay to net pay

In 2026, employee contributions will account for around 22 per cent of gross pay for a non-managerial employee in the private sector, equating to a pre-tax net pay of around 78 per cent (Urssaf), before health insurance and pension contributions. These contributions include, in particular:

• pension contributions at 6.90 per cent of salary up to the Social Security ceiling (€48,060 per year in 2026),
• 0.40 per cent of the total salary,
• supplementary pension contributions,
• the CSG (9.20 per cent) and the CRDS (0.50 per cent), calculated on 98.25 per cent of gross salary,
• other unemployment and personal protection contributions, depending on employment status.

Of these, 6.8 percentage points of the CSG are deductible from taxable income; the remainder and the CRDS are not. Senior executives pay higher contributions, with an overall rate of up to 25 per cent on high salaries. The increase in the CSG under the 2026 Finance Act does not apply to salaries, but only to certain forms of investment income. A calculator is available to determine the actual amounts based on your circumstances at https://shelteroffice.fr/shelter-tools/salaire/.

The total cost to the employer

In addition to employees’ contributions, there are employers’ contributions, which do not appear on payslips but are paid by employers. This is known as the ‘super gross’, which corresponds to around 40 per cent of the gross pay before any deductions (sickness, family, pension, unemployment, and workplace accidents). For incomes close to the minimum wage (SMIC), the single degressive general reduction (RGDU) significantly reduces these contributions, but its effect diminishes as the salary increases. Since 2026, this scheme has replaced the former reduced rates for sickness and family contributions, known as the ‘Fillon reductions’, which were abolished by the Social Security Financing Act. For example, on a gross salary of €2,500, the employer thus bears around a quarter of the gross amount in social security contributions, compared with a much heavier burden for salaries above €4,000.

For €100 of gross salary in 2026 (orders of magnitude, non-executive):

In other words, out of every €140 spent by a company on an employee, around €78 ends up in the employee’s account, before income tax. Nationwide, compulsory levies will amount to 43.6 per cent of GDP in 2025 (INSEE), of which around a third will be social security contributions.

These contributions fund pensions, health insurance, family benefits, unemployment benefits and care for the elderly – benefits from which everyone benefits. Employees, businesses and the public authorities thus share the cost of funding social protection. However, with a public deficit of just over 5 per cent of GDP in 2026, the question of how to finance these schemes remains unresolved. The French social model and its funding will be at the heart of many debates in the upcoming elections. Understanding the social and tax environment is essential for identifying clients’ needs and addressing their concerns. Finankap’s wealth management advisers help you make sense of it all and build a strategy tailored to your situation, contact us!

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