Mothers in France will benefit from higher retirement pensions starting on Tuesday, September 1, under new calculation rules introduced by the French government.
Under the new system, pension payouts for mothers with one child who received contribution quarters for childbirth will be calculated using their best 24 salary years instead of 25. For mothers with two or more children, calculations will be based on their 23 highest-earning years.
In France's state pension system, basic retirement benefits are traditionally calculated using average earnings across a worker's 25 highest-paid years. Excluding lower-earning years helps boost the overall average salary used to determine pension amounts.
The updated rules also allow mothers to count up to two contribution quarters granted for giving birth toward early retirement under the long career scheme. Under French law, pension contribution periods are measured in quarterly units known as trimestres, while the long career scheme allows individuals who began working at a young age to retire early.
Social security budget concessions
The pension adjustment stems from a legislative compromise offered during last autumn's parliamentary budget debate. The government of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu proposed the policy to secure parliamentary approval for the 2026 Social Security budget.
French social partners, which include trade unions and employer organizations, originally proposed the changes during pension conclave talks in the summer of 2025. Their stated objective was to help narrow the persistent gap between pension payouts received by women and men.
Impact on female pensions
Government projections prepared for the 2026 Social Security budget indicate that the new calculation method will have a relatively limited overall effect. Taking into account 23 or 24 best salary years is expected to increase pensions for affected women by an average of 1 percent.
Official projections estimate the cost to the pension system at 0.2 billion euros in 2030, rising to 2.2 billion euros by 2050.
Regarding early retirement for long careers, the government indicated that 12,000 people will be affected by 2028, when the measure reaches its maximum impact. The financial cost for that provision is estimated at approximately 200 million euros annually starting in 2027.
