French Minimum Wage 2026

SMIC: Increase as of June 1, 2026, and its Impact on Immigration Procedures

The SMIC (French minimum wage) was increased by 2.41% effective June 1, 2026, rising to €12.31 gross per hour and €1,867.02 gross per month for a full-time position. This statutory minimum wage adjustment, driven by inflation, has a direct impact on professional immigration statuses whose minimum salary thresholds are indexed to the SMIC rather than a fixed reference salary.

The impacted professional immigration statuses include:

• « Salarié » (Employee) and « Travailleur temporaire » (Temporary Worker) statuses, for which the salary must be at least equal to the SMIC (or the salary specified in the collective bargaining agreement applicable to the company, if higher than the SMIC)
• Change of status from « Etudiant » (Student), « Recherche d’emploi / création d’entreprise » (RECE), or « Autorisation provisoire de séjour » (APS) to « Salarié », which is subject to a threshold of 1.5 times the SMIC, now representing approximately €2,800.53 gross per month.
• Work permits for foreign employees, where the administration verifies compliance of the remuneration with the SMIC.

Non-compliance of the salary level with the set thresholds can trigger the need for the employer to conduct a labor market test (process called "opposabilité de la situation de l'emploi" in French).

The « Talent – Mandataire social » (Talent - Corporate Officer) status is also affected. The required minimum remuneration is set at three times the annual gross SMIC, which amounts to approximately €67,212.60 gross per year under the new SMIC. Any initial application, renewal, or change of immigration status involving this permit must be reassessed based on this new amount.

Other Talent statuses, being based on a fixed reference salary, are not automatically recalculated with each SMIC variation. Their salary requirements remain subject to the amounts set by current regulatory provisions, as indicated in this previous newsletter.

For employers, this development means they must immediately check the compliance of the salaries offered in ongoing cases, particularly during the initial filing of an application, a permit renewal, or a change of status. A salary reassessment aligned with the new SMIC is therefore essential. Without this update, the application loses its exemption and automatically falls under the labor market test regime (l'opposabilité de la situation de l'emploi). The employer will then be required to prove that they have searched, without success, for a candidate already available on the French labor market before being allowed to hire a foreign employee. Failure to perform this salary adjustment exposes the application to an urgent request for regularization or a rejection by the administration.

Our Immigration team remains at your disposal for any further information.

Sources:

Arrêté du 22 mai 2026 relatif au relèvement du salaire minimum de croissance - Légifrance in French

Salaire minimum -Le Smic va augmenter le 1er juin | Service Public in French

Talent card: multi-year residence card of a foreigner in France | Service Public