Your salary will drop in January, and there's a good reason why

The pay slip will be subject to some changes this year. Officially, this involves simplifying a document that is often cryptic for most employees, in order to make it easier to read, but also to offer better access to their rights and contributions. If many just take a look at the line “Net payable“, which summarizes the exact amount paid at the end of the month into your bank account, other, more modest lines are about to change, which will have an impact on the final salary.

Mutual contributions will increase

It is a variable part, and yet obligatory for employees: mutual insurance, presented under the title of “Compulsory health supplement” on your pay slip. The latter will see their monthly contributions increase in the private sector. If it remains covered at least 50% by the employer, the remaining part to be paid, deducted from the gross salary and detailed on the line “Employee share/contribution” will therefore be revised upwards, and result in a few euros less on your final pay.

This average increase of 6% will not normally come right away, since it will depend on the anniversary date of your contract renewal. The only good news is that the employer contribution portion will also increase.

Reimbursement limit on transport

More bad news for private sector employees: while until now it was possible for the employer to reimburse 75% of the amount of the public transport subscriptionthe approach is now prohibited, and reduced to the legal minimum 50%. A hard blow for purchasing power: if we take the example of the Navigo Pass which allows travel to Île-de-France, the reimbursement will thus increase from €64.80 reimbursement to a maximum limit of €43.20 , which correspond to half of the monthly subscription of €86.40. This limit will therefore result, for some, in a net reduction of around twenty euros on their pay slip.

The withholding tax rate changes

Finally, a last line risks changing the amount of the final pay slip for certain private employees: this is the one indicating the personalized withholding tax rate, indicated as “Custom rate” or “Withholding tax“. Fortunately, this change will not concern everyone, but only those who changed their income between January 1 and December 31, 2024. No surprise here, it will simply be a matter of regulate the percentage of withholding tax from January 1, rather than waiting for the traditional automatic update which will occur later in the year.

Be careful to monitor the accuracy of the new amounts indicated on your next pay slip, to ensure that no error has been made by your employer.