France’s "Pacte" law: clarifications on the staff headcount thresholds

From January 1st, 2020, staff headcount-dependent contribution calculation rules have been simplified by France’s "Pacte" law.

For employers using the Cea service, this mainly applies to the following staff headcount thresholds:

• 11 employees,
• 20 employees,
• 50 employees.

Some older rules remain in place. This includes the following:

• The 8% "forfait social (corporate social contribution) will continue to apply to employers’supplementary providence contributions, and companies with 11 or more employees will continue to pay the "versement transport" (public transport contribution).
• The employer contribution flat-rate deduction on overtime will remain in place for employers with fewer than 20 employees.

The main changes are as follows:

• The 0.50% additional national housing aid fund (fonds national d'aide au logement – FNAL) contribution now applies to companies with 50 or more employees (up from 20);
• When employee headcount goes up to reach or exceed a threshold, this will only be taken into account once the threshold has been reached or exceeded for 5 consecutive calendar years.However, this 5-year waiting period does not apply to the following situations if, on January 1st, 2020:
  • The company’s employee headcount was greater than or equal to a threshold and the company was already subject to the obligations resulting from that threshold in 2019;
  • The company was already applying a previous threshold relief measure. In that case, the older measure will continue to apply until its end date.