The Salaire Minimum Interprofessionnel de Croissance (SMIC), or French statutory national minimum wage, is the legally binding floor below which no employee in France may be paid, regardless of sector, company size, or collective agreement. It applies to all employees aged 18 and over working on French territory. The SMIC is expressed as both an hourly rate and a monthly gross equivalent based on the statutory 35-hour working week.
The SMIC is reviewed and set by decree on 1 January each year, based on the evolution of consumer prices for working-class households and half the real purchasing-power growth in average blue-collar wages. If inflation exceeds a threshold of 2 per cent between two official measurements, an automatic mid-year upward adjustment is triggered. As of 1 January 2025 the gross hourly SMIC stood at EUR 11.88, equating to approximately EUR 1,801.80 gross per month for a full-time 35-hour week.
Collective agreements (conventions collectives) may set higher sector-specific minimum rates, but they cannot set rates below the SMIC. Employers who pay below the SMIC face criminal fines. For international hiring teams, the SMIC is the baseline for any cost-of-employment modelling for French-based roles.