The French social security ceiling is one of the most structural parameters in French payroll. It does not cap the salary: it serves as the calculation base for part of the contributions and draws the line between what the jargon calls band 1 and band 2. Understanding this threshold means understanding why the average contribution rate rises in steps rather than smoothly.
PASS, PMSS: what exactly are we talking about
The ceiling is set each year by decree and comes in several periodicities. The PASS (annual social security ceiling) is the annual reference. The PMSS (monthly ceiling) is one twelfth of it, and that is the figure used for monthly payroll. There are also daily and hourly versions, useful for part-time or very short contracts.
Our simulators use a monthly ceiling of €4,005 for 2026, which is €48,060 over twelve months. As the ceiling is revalued each year in line with wage growth, we encourage you to confirm the figure currently in force with URSSAF before using it for any official calculation: an estimate based on an out-of-date ceiling produces a wrong result for every salary close to the threshold.
Band 1, band 2: how the salary is split
The mechanism is simpler than it looks. The portion of pay below the ceiling makes up band 1. The portion above it makes up band 2, counted up to eight times the ceiling for the supplementary pension.
An employee paid €3,500 gross per month sits entirely in band 1: no band 2 line appears on their payslip. An employee paid €5,000 gross, by contrast, sees their pay split: €4,005 falls in band 1, and the remaining €995 in band 2.
This split is far from trivial, because band 2 rates are markedly higher. For the AGIRC-ARRCO supplementary pension, the employee rates used by our simulators go from 3.15% in band 1 to 8.64% in band 2, and the employer rates from 4.72% to 12.95%. The CEG follows the same logic, from 0.86% to 1.08% on the employee side.
Which contributions actually depend on the ceiling
Not all contributions are affected, and this is a frequent source of confusion. The ceiling comes into play mainly for:
- capped old-age insurance, whose base stops at the monthly ceiling — beyond it, this line stops growing;
- the AGIRC-ARRCO supplementary pension, whose rates change between band 1 and band 2;
- the technical balance contribution (CET), due only from employees whose pay exceeds the ceiling;
- the FNAL levy for the smallest companies, calculated on the capped base.
Conversely, uncapped old-age insurance, health insurance, family allowances and unemployment insurance are calculated on the entire gross salary, with no regard to the ceiling. CSG and CRDS follow yet another rule: their base is reduced to 98.25% of pay, up to four times the annual ceiling.
Why the average rate rises in steps
This is the most visible consequence of the mechanism. As long as pay stays below the ceiling, the overall contribution rate is relatively stable. As soon as it crosses, every additional euro bears the band 2 rates, far higher for the supplementary pension, while capped old-age insurance stops rising.
The result: the average contribution rate for an employee paid well above the ceiling is higher than for one just below it, but the gap is not proportional. For an employer, this means a pay rise that pushes an employee over the ceiling costs more, per gross euro granted, than a rise sitting entirely within band 1 — something to anticipate in a pay policy.
Part-time work and incomplete months: the ceiling is prorated
The monthly ceiling corresponds to a full month of full-time work. As soon as that is not the case, it has to be adjusted to the employee's actual situation, otherwise capped contributions would be calculated on too wide a base.
Three common situations call for this adjustment: joining or leaving mid-month, where the ceiling is reduced in proportion to the period of employment; part-time work, for which the ceiling may be prorated according to the working hours agreed in the contract relative to the statutory or contractual working time; and unpaid absences, which reduce the capped base over the period concerned.
The precise terms of this proration — rounding rules, the treatment of multiple employers, the case of employees with several employers or very short contracts — are governed by detailed technical rules that we do not reproduce here. Our simulators assume a full month of full-time work: for a part-time contract or an incomplete month, treat the result as an order of magnitude and refer to the URSSAF documentation or your payroll department for the exact calculation.
Other uses of the ceiling
The ceiling is not used only to calculate contributions. It serves as a reference in many social protection arrangements: capping certain daily social security benefits, calculating exemption thresholds, and setting limits applicable to employee savings schemes and income protection.
Each of these uses follows its own rules — sometimes based on the PASS, sometimes on a multiple or a fraction of it. We do not detail them here: check the specific arrangement that concerns you on service-public.fr or with the relevant body, rather than transposing the rule that applies to contributions.
What to remember
The social security ceiling is not a limit on pay but a calculation boundary. Below the ceiling, band 1; above it, band 2 and appreciably higher supplementary pension rates. It is revalued every year, which makes it one of the few payroll parameters to re-check systematically at the start of each financial year.
To see the effect of the ceiling on a specific salary, our simulators display the breakdown line by line, distinguishing band 1 from band 2 contributions.