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Working in France: What can you expect to earn?

If you want to work in France, it's helpful to know what you can expect to earn - here's a look at the industry-standard salaries on offer in a range of different jobs.

Published: 16 September 2022 15:28 CEST

Working in France: What can you expect to earn?

Marie-Chantal Baumstarck, a middle-school English teacher at du Roy d'Espagne, in Marseille, southern France, on the eve of the 2014 school year. (Photo by BORIS HORVAT / AFP)

If you want to work in France one of the key questions is how much can you expect to earn? France is not generally known as a high-wage country, although on the other hand the cost-of-living in some areas is also quite low.

French daily newspaper Le Parisien has put together a ‘salary simulator’ where you can check the industry standard for your profession, covering a wide range of different types of jobs.

With the obvious caveat that a lot depends on your experience, whether your qualifications are recognised in France and whether (if applicable) you speak French, you can check out the simulator HERE.

Below are five examples of standard rates of pay (annual, before tax) using the salary simulator, for jobs popular with foreigners in France;

Tech

France has been making a big effort to attract tech workers in recent years. It has even launched the ‘French Tech Visa’ – a type of ‘passeport talent’ (you can read more about this residency permit HERE) that allows you to work in France for up to four years if you have been offered a job at an eligible French company.

French President Emmanuel Macron also launched the “Choose France” campaign to attract foreign investment in French tech, as well as to make France a more appealing place to work for technology workers. The website Welcome to France (written in English) is also geared toward attracting foreign talent and start-ups, and offers links to tech-specific job boards for English-speakers looking to work in France.

To give an example of this, we picked the average salary expectations for a “Data Scientist or ML Developer”

With 0 to 2 years experience in the field: Between €40,000 and €45,00
With 2 to 5 years experience: Between €45,000 and €60,000
With 5 to 10 years experience: Between €60,000 and €70,000
With 10 to 15 years experience: Between €70,000 and more than €80,000
With 15 years experience or more: Between €70,000 and more than €80,000

Healthcare Assistant/ Worker

A shortage of healthcare workers means there are plenty of jobs in this sector – but many roles require French qualifications.

Foreigners looking to work in French healthcare might consider being a healthcare assistant or aide – more accessible professions which require less country-specific training.

For this field, we chose a ‘healthcare assistant’ at a care facility for the salary example:

0 to 2 years : Between €21,000 and €24,000
2 to 5 years : Between €24,000 and €28,000
5 to 10 years : Between €28,000 and €32,000
10 to 15 years: Between €32,000 and €36,000
15 years and more : Between €32,000 and €36,000

Marketing and Public Relations

As many French companies and businesses seek to increase their appeal to English-speaking audiences, your status as an anglophone could come in handy. The website Emploi Strategies is focused on jobs in marketing and PR, with many ob postings asking that candidates either be bilingual or speak some level of English in order to apply.

We chose the role of “Product Manager” for the example within this field.

0 to 2 years : Between €30,000 and €35,000
2 to 5 years : Between €35,000 and €45,000
5 to 10 years : Between €45,000 and €55,000
10 to 15 years: Between €45,000 and €55,000
15 years and more : Between €45,000 and €55,000

Tourism

This is a field that is accessible for English-speaking foreigners – France is the world’s most-visited tourist destination and the relaxation of Covid-related travel restrictions helped create a huge rebound in tourism in France, particularly on the part of American tourists, who made up around 12.7 percent of foreign tourists in 2022.

With an influx of English-speaking tourists, as well as a minimum level of English often being a stated requirement for those working in France’s tourism industry, being a native speaker could be in your favour.

We chose the example of an “Account Manager”:

0 to 2 years : Between €28,000 and €35,000.
2 to 5 years : Between €30,000 and €38,000
5 to 10 years : Between €35,000 and €45,000
10 to 15 years: More than €45,000
15 years and more : More than €45,000

Local variations

The data comes from PageGroup, a firm specialising in executive recruitment, who analysed the majority of salaries offered in the first half of 2022 – encompassing over 800 jobs in 24 sectors across France.

Some career fields might not be listed on the simulator, particularly those pertaining to public servants whose salaries are indexed.

French salaries will also depend on region – you can expect to earn more in the Greater Paris area than in other parts of the country. On average, salaries were between five to ten percent lower than Paris in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Pays de la Loire and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, 15 percent lower in Brittany and Occitania, and up to 20 percent lower in Centre-Val-de-Loire, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Normandy, the Grand Est and Hauts-de-France.

If you did not see your industry listed above, you can try the job simulator HERE.

Education

This is another common field for foreigners seeking to work in France. Education is one of the ten fields that the French government expects to be hiring the most in the next ten years.

Additionally, English-language instruction has become more of a priority for the French Education Ministry, particularly after launching its Emergency English learning plan for French public schools.

Teaching is not included on Le Parisien’s salary simulator as teachers are considered ‘fonctionnaires‘ (civil servants) in France, however the government does publish national pay scales for teachers.

Keep in mind that if you are looking to teach English in France, you will need a TEFL certificate. If you are looking to work as a secondary school teacher generally, you must pass the “Capes” examination (Certificat d’Aptitude au Professorat de l’Enseignement du Second degré).

You can see the table for teacher salaries based on seniority below – unlike the salaries listed above, these are displayed as after-tax.

Education Minister Pap Ndiaye announced in August that starting in September 2023, first year educators will earn €2,000 (post-tax) per month, and that there will also be increases for teachers in the “middle of their career” by the same date.

As of September 2022, a first year teacher earned approximately €19,680 per year after taxes. For a teacher with four years of experience, this amount would be closer to €28,068 after taxes.

The table with salary levels by teacher seniority, as of January 2022, from the education ministry can be seen below:

Table by Education.gouv.fr

The education ministry also has its own salary simulator, that you can find HERE for more precise estimates based on your situation.

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9 things Brits need to know about moving to France since Brexit

Brits who want to move to France now face a radically different process from those who took advantage of EU freedom of movement to make the move before Brexit.

It’s a more complicated process – but it’s still possible and 8,700 UK nationals moved to France in 2023.

Here are some of the big things you need to know before making the move.

1 Visa

The biggest post-Brexit change is that Brits moving to France now require a visa (unless they have dual nationality with an EU country).

The visa must be applied for first, and only when it is granted can you make the move – you cannot come to France and then apply for residency (unless you are covered by the Withdrawal Agreement, more on that below).

There are various different types of visas depending on what you intend to do in France – work, study, retire etc – and many of them contain conditions eg people on a ‘visitor’ visa are not permitted to work in France.

It makes things less flexible as it’s harder to change your plans once you have arrived. It also means that it’s harder to have a ‘half and half’ lifestyle – eg retire from your day job and move to France to run a gîte or B&B.

Explained: What type of French visa do you need

The best visa type is undoubtedly the ‘Talent Passport’, so it’s worth checking whether you fit any of the criteria for this visa type.

2 Residency card

Once you have your visa and have moved to France this is very far from being the end of the process.

You will need to apply for a residency card after a certain period (usually three months but different visa types have different rules) and according to your personal situation you may also be required to attend a compulsory medical, language classes and ‘integration’ classes through the French office of immigration and integration (OFII) – more on that here.

3 Health cover

When it comes to health there is some good news – Brits have retained many of their pre-Brexit rights to healthcare.

While you may need to provide proof of private health cover for your visa (depending on the visa type) once you have been resident in France for three months you are entitled to register in the French health system, which covers most of your medical costs.

Full details on how to register HERE.

Brits who are retired and have reached UK pension age also retain their right to an S1 – the status which entitles you to register in the French health system, while the UK continues to pay your medical costs.

4 Remote working

The rise in remote working means that the dream of moving abroad seems much closer for working-age people – since you will be able to work remotely in your native language, maybe even keep your existing job and simply relocate.

While this is possible, you need to do careful research in advance to ensure that work is compliant with your visa and tax situation. Unlike some countries, France does not have a ‘digital nomad visa’ or other visa types aimed at remote workers, in fact the visa rules were written before remote working became widespread, which is why there are some grey areas.

Most lawyers advise getting a working visa (salarié if you are working remotely for a French company as an employee, or auto-entrepreneur for freelancers) and paying social contributions in France. Find full details on visa and tax implications.

You also need to be aware that being a remote working can have an effect on your long-term plans in France – for example if after five years of residence you intend to apply for French citizenship you will need to prove that the ‘centre of your economic activity’ in in France. If all your work is done remotely for foreign companies then this could be a reason to have citizenship refused.

5 Working restrictions

If you want to work in France (remotely or not) you first need to check if there are any restrictions on your profession – certain types of work are ‘regulated professions’ in France, which means you will need specific French qualifications and/or registration within a French guild or professional organisation. The number of professions that are ‘regulated’ is surprisingly wide – taking in everything from chimney sweeping to hairdressing.

The next step is whether your qualifications will be recognised in France – EU countries generally recognise most of each other’s qualifications apart from in certain specific areas like medicine, but this is no longer the case for qualifications gained in the UK – more details here.

There are also certain jobs that are restricted to French citizens only, while others – including working in the public sector in positions including being a librarian – are limited to EU citizens only.

In visa terms, the simplest way for working-age people to come to France is as a salarié (employee) but to do this you will need a job already in place and your new employers will have to act as sponsors for your visa and may also be required to get a work permit for you. All of which means that Brits are less attractive as employees than EU citizens, which makes getting a job harder.

The other option is to be self-employed as either a freelancer, contractor or running a small business – this is a more complicated visa to get, requiring a detailed business plan. Once in France you need to register yourself as a small business/self-employed and register with Urssaf.

6 Tax

If you are living in France, then you will need to do the annual income tax declaration – even if all your income comes from abroad and you are retired/not working in France.

Full details on that HERE.

This was in fact the case before Brexit as well but previously there was a little more flexibility for people who split their time between France and the UK. These days if you want to be here for the majority of the year then you will need a visa/residency card, which removes much of the ambiguity about who is a ‘resident’.

The main post-Brexit difference is the rate at which prélèvements sociaux (social charges, similar to National Insurance) are charged on overseas income (eg earnings from work in the UK or income from renting out a UK property).

The rate is 7.5 percent for income from an EU country and 17.2 percent for income from a non-EU country – after Brexit, UK income switched to the non-EU rate.

7 Driving licence

Foreigners who make France their home will sooner or later need to swap their driving licence for a French one. This too was the case even before Brexit, but many UK or NI licence holders never got round to making the switch, and there wasn’t a lot of enforcement of the rule.

This has now been tightened up and UK/NI licence holders will need to swap their licences for a French one – the exact details of when you make the swap are slightly different for Brits than from other non-EU nationals due to a specific UK-France deal. Find full details HERE.

If you want to bring a car with you from the UK to France, you will also need to re-register it as French – full details HERE.

8 Banks

Most people moving to France will want to set up a French bank account for daily life, but you may also need a UK account, especially if you are a pensioner as some pensions will only pay into a UK account.

However since Brexit some of the biggest UK high street banks have been closing the accounts of their customers who do not live in the UK.

Alternatives include specific ‘expat’ accounts or internet banks – more details HERE.

9 The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement

It’s worth mentioning the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement even though most of it will not apply to newcomers. In brief, the citizens’ rights part of the Withdrawal Agreement covered people who moved to France prior to December 31st 2020, and intended to give them an easy way to remain in France and retain at least some of their pre-Brexit rights.

In general it does not apply to newcomers unless you are a close family member of someone who is covered by the Withdrawal Agreement – either a spouse or civil partner (in which case you must have married/ registered your partnership prior to December 31st 2020) or child. These people have a different path to residency, and can arrive in France and then request residency via the local préfecture of the family member who is already living here.

It’s also worth mentioning because of how different it is to the situation for new arrivals. It’s normal to ask Brits already living in France how they found the whole process – but if someone starts to tell you that getting residency is easy, the first question that you need to ask is when they moved here.

Those here prior to 2021 did indeed get an easy process – they had a special website to apply online for (free) residency cards and received straight away either a 5-year or 10-year card. This is a totally difference process to the one for Brits moving to France now.

If you’re asking around you would be better talking to Americans, Canadians or other non-EU nationals since their process is much more similar to that now in place for Brits.

. . . And new deals/visas/residency permits for Brits

Every now and again UK media will report which great excitement the possibility of a ‘new deal’ for Brits that will make moving to France, or buying a second home here, easier.

These reports should all be taken with a pinch of salt – there are currently no negotiations underway that would affect the process of Brits moving to France, and even if something is proposed in the near future it will likely take years to come into effect because these types of international agreements usually happen slowly.

A proposal for a ‘youth mobility scheme’ from the EU was rejected out of hand by British politicians before it had even been formally offered.

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