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How to hire remote employees in
Hiring abroad is notoriously difficult: New labor laws, entities, a lot of words you’d rather not hear again. But we’ve got good news—it doesn’t need to be that way. Below, we’ll break down your two main options for hiring in France (and the one we prefer).
If you want to successfully hire in
France
, you have two options:
Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in
France
. Onboarding talent takes days, not weeks or months. Both you, the company, and your talent have more flexibility. And in many cases, since you’re remote, the talent you’re hiring is better classified as a contractor, anyway. Of course, it’s not possible in every case, but it’s what we built Thera for.
This is the long route. You can either establish a physical presence with an entity and register as an employer, or you can use an Employer-of-Record (EOR) solution. Odds are, you’ll find using an EOR to be the easier route. Still, using an EOR in
France
is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.
Hiring contractors is normally the easier, faster, more flexible choice—but don’t just take it from us. Below are the specific benefits and drawbacks to hiring contractors in
France
.
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Thera's locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It costs just $0 to sign up for Thera, then $25 per month to hire your contractors with Thera. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Hiring contractors in
France
means you’re generally not on the hook for things like health insurance and paid time off. This makes hiring flexible for you, and it gives your talent more options.
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
If you’re hiring contractors in
France
, you can pay them with Thera in a single click. You won’t need to worry about complicated wire transfers, fees, or currency conversions. We’ll take care of it all. Just make a click and your contractor will get paid in their currency of choice. This is a valuable bonus for talent in countries where the local currency is particularly weak—most people appreciate the ability to receive their payment in stronger currencies.
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in France than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in France.
After the first month of probation, employees are entitled to 5 weeks of annual leave.
There are 11 public holidays.
An employee must put in at least 150 hours of work in the past 3 months or 90 days immediately before the leave or have contributed based on earnings of at least 1,015 times the legal hourly minimum wage in the last six calendar months.
A payment of 50% of the insured’s daily earnings is paid after a three-day waiting period.
Paternity leave entitlement is 28 days, where at least 1 week is mandatory. This leave also covers same-sex (female and male) couples. Employers are responsible for paying 3 days of the leave, while social security covers the rest.
Employees who have worked for at least one year before the date of their child’s birth, (or before welcoming a child no older than 16 years to their home with a view to adoption) can take parental leave or choose to work part-time.
This right extends until the child’s third birthday, (unless the child was aged between three and 16 on arrival, in which case the adoptive parent can take one year’s parental leave from the date of arrival).
If employees take parental leave, their employment contract is suspended and the employer does not have to pay compensation. However, the employees can receive certain indemnities from the social security system.
Parents can also benefit from additional leave when their child is sick, which usually amounts to between three and five days depending on the child’s age and the parent’s number of children.
However, if the child suffers from a serious illness or disability, or an accident, which requires continuous parental presence or constraining care, the parents can take a specific leave of 310 days over three years.
None.
None.
None.
In France, it is not allowed to dismiss someone due to COVID-19.
Resignation: No specific labor code. Can be submitted verbally or written, however, it is advised to provide a written notice. A fixed duration of notice does not exist, but notice should always be given. Notice period is determined on contract, agreement, or practices by profession.
Mutual Termination: Employers and employees agree on termination conditions in permanent employment contracts.
Economic Dismissal: These are jobs cut due to economic or technological changes.
Individual Dismissal: A preliminary dismissal interview must be set up and take place. 2 days to a month after the meeting a letter of dismissal must be sent to the employee.
1 month for employment between 6 months and 2 years.
2 months for employment over 2 years.
3 months for executives.
Calculations for severance pay depend on which payment provides the most favorable outcome.
Monthly average of last 12 months of employment;
Average monthly earnings of all months preceding dismissal;
1/3 of the last 3 months.
A full-time workweek is 35 hours.
Overtime is work done beyond the weekly 35 hours. With an established agreement overtime pay must be no less than 110% of the regular wages. If no agreement is in place, overtime pay is 125% of the regular pay for the first 8 hours of overtime and 150% for every hour after.
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