How much does a part-time secretary really cost in France in 2026?

Service-public.fr, the French government’s official information site, gives a gross hourly Smic of €12.31, i.e. €1,867.02 gross per month for 35 hours a week, and a net amount, given for information only, of €9.74 per hour. This amount results from the automatic increase that took place on 1 June 2026 (order of 22 May 2026), which the Urssaf, the body that collects social security contributions, refers to in its calculation formulas for 2026.

The Smic is a floor. If the collective agreement that applies to your business sets a higher minimum wage for the role, that minimum applies. So check your sector’s pay scale before doing any calculation.

The French Labour Code (Code du travail) sets a minimum duration for part-time work (Articles L3123-7, L3123-19 and L3123-27). In the absence of provisions in a collective agreement, it is 24 hours a week, or the monthly equivalent, i.e. 104 hours. A collective agreement or an extended sector-level agreement may provide for a shorter duration.

Exemptions exist, in particular: a contract of 7 days or less, replacement of an absent employee, a written and reasoned request from the employee because of personal constraints or to combine several jobs, a student under 26. Service-public.fr specifies that the employer is not obliged to accept an employee’s request; for a student under 26, on the other hand, the Labour Code (Article L3123-7) provides that the shorter duration is granted as of right, at the student’s request. In practice, a “two hours in the morning” role cannot be set up without a basis in a collective agreement or a request from the employee.

Beyond the contractual hours, additional hours are limited to one tenth of the contract’s duration (one third if an agreement allows it) and, unless an agreement sets a different rate, paid at a 10% premium up to the one-tenth limit and 25% beyond.

For a 24-hour-a-week contract paid at the Smic, the basic calculation is simple: 104 hours a month multiplied by €12.31, i.e. €1,280.24 gross per month. Add, where applicable, any bonuses provided for in the collective agreement and any additional hours.

This amount is the gross salary, not the cost to the business. It is the basis on which employer contributions are calculated.

In 2026, the general reduction in employer contributions takes the form of the réduction générale dégressive unique (RGDU). According to the Urssaf, it applies to pay below 3 times the Smic (value at 1 January 2026), i.e. 2.9293 times the Smic (value at 1 June 2026): the June increase therefore does not raise this ceiling. It is applied in particular to employer contributions for social insurance, old-age pensions, family allowances, unemployment insurance and supplementary pensions, the pooled share of workplace accident contributions, the contribution solidarité autonomie (autonomy solidarity contribution) and the Fnal (national housing assistance fund contribution). The Smic value used in the formula is adjusted to take part-time work into account.

Rather than recalculating these rates by hand, use the Urssaf’s official simulator on mon-entreprise.urssaf.fr. It includes the 2026 updates, including the RGDU, but does not take collective agreements or specific aid into account, and its results are for guidance only. Your chartered accountant or payroll manager will confirm the exact amount.

Add collective supplementary health insurance: according to Entreprendre Service Public, the employer’s contribution must be at least 50% of the premium. The same page mentions cases in which employees may opt out of the scheme, including certain part-time employees.

A part-time employee accrues, just like a full-time employee, 2.5 working days (jours ouvrables) of paid leave per month of actual work, i.e. 30 working days for a full year. During those five weeks, and during sick leave, nobody is answering the phone, unless you arrange cover.

On top of this come the time spent on recruitment and training, the workstation, payroll management and the fact that a 24-hour contract covers only part of your opening hours. Calls that come in outside those hours go unanswered.

A secretary rarely just answers the phone: front-desk reception, post, invoicing, reminders. List these tasks and the actual call volume, per hour and per day, before comparing solutions. Alyas answers the phone 24 hours a day from the information you provide, collects callers’ contact details and puts a transcript and a summary of each call in your customer area. Its free ten-day trial, with no credit card required, can be used to measure the volume and nature of your calls before you decide.