Researched by ExpatMoneyEU Team · Last updated 5 November 2026 · Data: Service-Public.fr / French Labour Code (Code du travail) 2026
The short answer: on €15.00 an hour working 39 hours a week, you earn 4 overtime hours a week. They pay €75.00 a week at 125% of your hourly wage — €15.00 of that is the 25% premium. Over a month (4.33 weeks) that is about €325.00 of overtime pay, on top of €2,273.25 of base pay for the 35-hour week — €2,598.00 gross a month in total. The first €7,500 of net overtime pay a year is exempt from French income tax (Service-Public.fr, 2026). Enter your own wage and hours below — the result updates instantly.
Calculate your overtime pay
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| Pay line | Per week | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Base pay (35 hours/week) | €525.00 | €2,273.25 |
| Overtime pay (at 125% / 150%) | €75.00 | €324.75 |
| Of which: overtime premium only | €15.00 | €64.95 |
| Total gross pay | €600.00 | €2,598.00 |
| Annual view | Per year |
|---|---|
| Annual overtime pay (gross) | €3,900.00 |
| Estimated tax-exempt overtime (cap €7,500) | €3,900.00 |
| Remaining exemption headroom | €3,600.00 |
The €7,500 income-tax exemption applies to net overtime pay, so the exempt figure above is an estimate — your net figure will be slightly lower than the gross shown. Employee social contributions on overtime are also reduced, up to 11.31% of salary.
What this calculator does: it turns your hourly wage and weekly hours into your French overtime pay, split into base pay, overtime pay and the premium alone — so you can check your payslip line by line and see how much of your overtime stays tax-free under the €7,500 annual exemption.
How to use the calculator
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- Enter your gross hourly wage — the rate on your contract or payslip, before any deductions. The SMIC floor in 2026 is €12.31 an hour.
- Enter how many hours you actually work each week. Anything above 35 hours counts as overtime under French law.
- Check the weeks-per-month figure — 4.33 is the average month (52 weeks ÷ 12). Read your overtime premium and total gross monthly pay in the dark-blue box.
- Compare the annual total with the €7,500 cap — the table underneath shows how much of your yearly overtime pay is likely to stay exempt from income tax.
The formula: how French overtime pay is calculated
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In France the legal working week is 35 hours. Any hour worked beyond 35 in the same calendar week, at the employer's request, is an overtime hour (heure supplémentaire), and the French Labour Code (Code du travail) sets the minimum uplift. In symbols:
Overtime hours = hours worked per week − 35
Overtime pay per week = (first 8 overtime hours × wage × 1.25) + (overtime hours beyond 8 × wage × 1.50)
Total gross monthly pay = (35 × wage × 4.33) + (overtime pay per week × 4.33)
- Hourly wage — your gross hourly rate, before social charges and tax. At the SMIC it is €12.31 an hour in June 2026 (French government / INSEE reporting).
- First 8 overtime hours (36th–43rd hour) — paid at +25%, i.e. 125% of your hourly wage. The premium alone is 25% of the wage for each of those hours.
- Beyond the 43rd hour — paid at +50%, i.e. 150% of your hourly wage. The premium alone is 50% of the wage for each of those hours.
- Weeks per month (4.33) — a year has 52 weeks, so the average month has 52 ÷ 12 = 4.33 weeks. Weekly pay × 4.33 gives the monthly figure.
- Collective agreements — your convention collective can set different overtime rates, but never below +10%, and it can replace some or all of the pay with compensatory rest of equivalent value.
Worked example: €15 an hour, 39 hours a week
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Take an expat on €15.00 an hour working 39 hours a week on a 35-hour contract. Overtime hours = 39 − 35 = 4 hours a week, all inside the first-8 band, so they pay at 125%: 4 × €15.00 × 1.25 = €75.00 a week of overtime pay, of which the premium is 4 × €15.00 × 0.25 = €15.00 a week. Base pay is 35 × €15.00 = €525.00 a week. Monthly, base pay is €525.00 × 4.33 = €2,273.25 and overtime pay is €75.00 × 4.33 = €324.75 (premium €64.95). Result: €2,598.00 gross a month. Over a year the overtime adds up to €75.00 × 52 = €3,900.00 — all of it under the €7,500 tax-exemption cap.
A second example: €20.00 an hour, 45 hours a week. Overtime = 10 hours: the first 8 pay 8 × €20.00 × 1.25 = €200.00, and the next 2 pay 2 × €20.00 × 1.50 = €60.00 — €260.00 a week of overtime pay, of which the premium is €60.00. Monthly overtime is €260.00 × 4.33 = €1,125.80, base pay is 35 × €20.00 × 4.33 = €3,031.00, so the total is €4,156.80 gross a month. Annual overtime is €260.00 × 52 = €13,520.00, so €7,500 of it is tax-exempt and the remaining €6,020.00 is taxed normally.
Overtime pay at a glance: 39 hours a week, 2026
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| Hourly wage | Overtime pay / week | Premium / week | Overtime pay / month | Total gross / month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €12.31 (SMIC) | €61.55 | €12.31 | €266.51 | €2,132.09 |
| €15.00 | €75.00 | €15.00 | €324.75 | €2,598.00 |
| €20.00 | €100.00 | €20.00 | €433.00 | €3,464.00 |
| €25.00 | €125.00 | €25.00 | €541.25 | €4,330.00 |
| €30.00 | €150.00 | €30.00 | €649.50 | €5,196.00 |
Check the SMIC row: 4 × €12.31 × 1.25 = €61.55 a week, and base pay is 35 × €12.31 × 4.33 = €1,865.58 a month by the 4.33-week calculation — the official SMIC monthly figure is €1,867.02 (based on 151.67 hours a month), a €1.44 rounding difference — giving €2,132.09 in total. Two patterns matter most. First, the premium is only a quarter of the overtime pay at +25%: most of what you earn for extra hours is your normal wage, the uplift is the bonus on top. Second, once you cross the 43rd hour the rate jumps to +50%, so a 45-hour week pays far more per extra hour than a 39-hour week.
The 220-hour quota, tax perks and your payslip
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Three rules catch newcomers by surprise. The annual quota: by default you may work up to 220 overtime hours a year (the contingent annuel), unless your collective agreement sets a different number. Hours beyond the quota do not disappear — they trigger compulsory compensatory rest (contrepartie obligatoire en repos) on top of the pay premium: 50% of those hours for companies with up to 20 employees, 100% for larger ones. The tax perk: the first €7,500 of net overtime pay each year is exempt from income tax, and employee social contributions on overtime are reduced by up to 11.31% of salary — both applied directly on your payslip and pre-filled on your tax return. The payslip: your overtime hours and their rate must appear on your bulletin de paie, and they are paid with your normal salary. Overtime is counted by calendar week, and hours are only overtime if your employer asked for them — though an employer's agreement can be implicit, for example when they validate hours you logged in the time-tracking system.
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Official sources for the figures on this page:
- Service-Public.fr — Heures supplémentaires d'un salarié du secteur privé — the French government's official page on overtime: 35-hour week, +25% / +50% rates, 220-hour quota, €7,500 tax exemption and the 11.31% contribution reduction
- Code du travail (Légifrance) — Durée du travail — the French Labour Code provisions on working time and overtime
- URSSAF — the French social-security contributions body, for the overtime contribution reduction
ExpatMoneyEU verdict: on €15 an hour at 39 hours a week, French overtime adds roughly €325 a month to your pay — and the first €7,500 a year of it is tax-free. Check your payslip shows the hours and the +25% rate, and watch the 220-hour annual quota.