Act No. 2003-47 of 17 January 2003 on salaries, working time and the development of employment (the “Fillon Act”) amended how the reduction of contributions is calculated.
As a result, since 1 July 2005 the maximum reduction has been 26% (in companies with more than 20 employees) for a worker paid the minimum wage. It then declines gradually to zero at 160% of the annual minimum wage. It applies irrespective of the number of hours worked. From 1st January 2019 to 1st October 2019, the reduction was 28.49%. Since 1st October 2019, it is 32.54%. For companies with less than 20 employees, the reduction was 28.09% between 1st January 2019 and 1st October 2019 and has increased to 32.14% since October 2019.
The Budget Act for 2007 (Article 41 V) bolsters this measure for very small enterprises with effect from 1 July 2007. For employers with between 1 and 19 employees, the maximum deduction was raised to 28.1% at the minimum wage, declining gradually – here too – to zero at 160% of the minimum wage.
In 1 January 2011 the “Fillon act” was modified and included an annualized calculation of the general tax reliefs of employer contributions. For part-time wage-earners, the relief is computed using an equivalent full-time salary and is then adjusted proportionally to the number of hours paid.
From 2015, the Responsibility Pact (Phase 1) includes new reductions of the labour cost: total exemption of all URSSAF employer contributions on the minimum wage (except unemployment contributions); reduction of 1.8 point on employer-paid contributions for family allowance (3.45% instead of 5.25% for salary up to 1.6 times the minimum wage, and up to 3.5 times from April 2016).
The gross annual minimum wage (for 1 820 hours) in 2019 was an estimated EUR 18 255.