Software Engineer Salary in France: Official Pay Data 2025

What software engineers earn in France

INSEE, the French statistics office, does not publish a regular pay figure for software engineers alone. The closest official measure is Eurostat's Structure of Earnings Survey: professionals working in the information and communication sector, the group that includes software engineers, earned a mean of €60,737 gross a year in 2022, in firms with 10 or more employees.

For more recent figures, INSEE's payroll data cover all private-sector employees in full-time equivalent. In 2025, cadres, the managers and professionals category in which France counts software engineers, earned a mean of €6,342 gross a month, or €76,104 a year (our calculation), and €4,711 net. That is 1.68 times the €2,797 net mean for all employees (our calculation). The median for all employees was €2,238 net a month. The cadres category also includes company heads on a salary, so it runs above what most engineers earn.

In 2024, cadres had a median of €3,750 net a month. A quarter earned less than €2,920, a quarter more than €5,090 and the top 10% more than €7,280. Across the whole information and communication sector, all jobs included, the mean was €3,853 net a month in 2024, 1.41 times the €2,733 mean for all employees (our calculation).

INSEE's study of digital occupations, based on its Labour Force Survey rather than payroll records, puts the median net pay of cadres in digital occupations at €3,100 a month, against €3,000 for other cadres. About 1.3 million people worked in a digital occupation on average from 2021 to 2023, 4.6% of people in work.

If you are a job seeker, compare offers on the same basis: the Eurostat and INSEE gross figures are before the employee's own contributions, the net figures after them.

How France compares in Europe

In the 2022 Structure of Earnings Survey, professionals in the information and communication sector in France earned a mean of €60,737 a year, 1.06 times the EU average of €57,522 (our calculation). Germany (€78,189) and Belgium (€74,098) were higher, Italy (€49,625) and Spain (€45,646) lower. The Eurostat group covers all professionals in the sector, not software engineers alone.

What an employer pays on top of salary

In 2026 a French employer pays these main contributions on top of gross pay, according to CLEISS, the public body for social security between countries, and Agirc-Arrco, the supplementary pension scheme:

• Health, maternity, disability and death insurance: 13% of full pay (7% for pay up to 2.25 times the minimum wage)
• Old-age insurance: 8.55% up to the social security ceiling, plus 2.11% of full pay
• Family allowances: 5.25% of full pay (3.45% on annual pay up to 3.3 times the minimum wage in force on 31 December 2023, for eligible employers)
• Autonomy solidarity contribution (CSA): 0.3%
• Housing fund (FNAL): 0.10% up to the ceiling below 50 employees, 0.50% of full pay from 50 employees
• Unemployment insurance: 4% and wage guarantee fund (AGS): 0.25%, up to 4 times the ceiling
• Agirc-Arrco supplementary pension: 4.72% up to the ceiling and 12.95% between 1 and 8 times the ceiling, plus the CEG at 1.29% and 1.62%, and the CET at 0.21% when pay exceeds the ceiling

The social security ceiling is €4,005 a month, or €48,060 a year, in 2026.

For a software engineer on €60,737 a year, these come to €24,149.76: €7,895.81 for health, €5,390.68 for old-age insurance, €3,188.69 for family allowances, €2,581.32 for unemployment and AGS, €4,862.99 for supplementary pension, and €230.27 for CSA and FNAL in a firm under 50 employees. That is 39.76% on top of salary, for a total of €84,886.76 a year (our calculation, 2026 rates). If the reduced family allowance rate applies, the cost is €1,093.27 lower. Work accident insurance, which varies by employer, the social dialogue contribution, the APEC contribution for cadres, mandatory cadre provident cover, training and apprenticeship taxes, any mobility levy and company health cover come on top.

Hiring a software engineer in France remotely

We do placement, not employer of record. We source, screen and interview remote software engineers and other professionals from a network of more than 1,000,000 European remote professionals, then deliver a shortlist of 3 vetted candidates within 21 days for a flat $6,500, or your deposit back. Every placement carries a 12-month replacement guarantee. See how placement works.

Prefer to run the search yourself? Post a job for $299, live for 60 days.

Once you have chosen someone, there are 3 common ways to employ them in France:

• French entity: you register a company in France, run payroll and pay the employer's contributions yourself.
• Employer of record (EOR): a third-party provider becomes the legal employer and runs French payroll for a monthly fee. Your company directs the work.
• Contractor: the person invoices you as a freelancer. The relationship has to be genuinely independent, or it can count as employment.

Euro Remote Talent does not employ people on your behalf. We find and shortlist the candidate, and you employ them through the route that fits.

Looking for a role yourself? Browse remote jobs in France or see how our Land a Great Remote Job program helps.

How we built these figures

INSEE's 2024 and 2025 figures come from the Base Tous salariés, built from employers' payroll declarations. They cover private-sector employees, including apprentices and interns, outside agriculture and household employers, and are expressed in full-time equivalent per month. INSEE does not publish yearly pay for detailed occupations such as software engineers or developers, by years of experience or by remote status, so we use the cadres category and the information and communication sector, and say which is which. The Eurostat comparison is from 2022 and covers all professionals in the information and communication sector in firms with 10 or more employees. The digital occupations figure comes from a household survey and is not directly comparable with payroll data. Where we multiply or divide, we say so.

More guides

• Hiring in France: employer costs and labor laws
• Average salary in France
• Cost of living in France
• Minimum wage in France
• Software engineer salaries in Europe, compared by country
• Remote engineering jobs open to people in Europe