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Practical guide
French unemployment benefit (ARE) starts from your former gross pay, but not from everything on your payslips. Without quoting rates that would soon be out of date, this guide explains who qualifies, what it is based on, how long it lasts and what delays the first payment.
The return-to-work allowance, the ARE, replaces part of your pay when you lose your job through no choice of your own. Its amount cannot be guessed from your last payslip: it depends on several months of gross pay, on what is left out of that pay, on how long you worked and on the sums you received when you left. This guide explains how it works without quoting rates or amounts: the scales change often, and only France Travail's calculation when you register is authoritative. For the current figures with their sources, ask Nego.
Everything starts from the reference pay: the total gross pay received during the reference period. France Travail divides it by the number of calendar days between the start of the first contract and the end of the last one, limiting the share of days not worked between contracts: this gives the daily reference pay, the SJR. Periods of sickness, maternity or short-time working can be rebuilt at your usual pay, so that they do not drag the average down. The pay taken into account is capped.
What is left out matters just as much: severance or mutual termination payments, pay for untaken holiday, the fixed-term end-of-contract bonus, pay in lieu of notice or non-compete compensation, expense reimbursements and sickness benefit. In other words, your final settlement does not raise your benefit. What goes in is gross salary, bonuses and benefits in kind from the contracts in that period.
The daily benefit is worked out from the SJR with two formulas, one proportional, the other combining a proportional part and a fixed part; France Travail keeps whichever gives more, with a minimum amount and a ceiling set as a share of the SJR. For low pay, the formula with a fixed part often wins; the higher the pay, the smaller the share of the former gross that the benefit represents. Deductions then apply (supplementary pension, CSG and CRDS), reduced for the smallest benefits. For high earners, the benefit drops after a few months, except above a certain age. It is paid monthly, on a fixed number of days.
How long you are paid follows how long you worked during the reference period: the more you worked, the longer you are covered, between a minimum and a maximum that depends on age. A coefficient shortens this while the job market is judged favourable. For a contract ending on or after 1 September 2026, the maximum after an individual mutual termination is shorter than after a dismissal, except in Mayotte: worth weighing before you sign one, with the guide on mutual termination. Days not paid out are not lost when you go back to work: they stay in reserve, and new rights can be topped up after a further period of employment.
These delays add up and do not reduce your rights: they push them back. Negotiating a payment above the minimum is usually still worth it, but plan for what you will live on during the deferral.
Working while you receive benefit does not mean losing it all: the month's benefit is reduced according to the pay you earn, and your pay plus benefit cannot exceed your former reference pay. You just declare your hours and gross pay to France Travail each month. Benefit days not paid out remain available for later. Before accepting a short assignment or part-time work, a simulation in your France Travail account shows what you will receive in total.
A resignation does not give a right to unemployment benefit, unless it is treated as legitimate (moving to follow your partner, unpaid wages, violence at work, among others) or it serves a career-change project recognised as genuine and serious by your regional Transitions Pro association before you leave, with a condition on previous work. Otherwise, a review is possible after a period out of work. The guide on resignation and pay details these cases.
At the end of a fixed-term contract or assignment, turning down a permanent contract for an equivalent job also has an effect: 2 refusals within 12 months block new rights, unless you worked on a permanent contract during that time. The guide fixed-term or permanent explains what counts as an equivalent offer.
For an amount, only one source is authoritative: France Travail's notice after you register, preceded if you wish by a simulation on its website. To understand a rule or a notice, Nego looks up the scales in force and quotes its sources. And to prepare what comes next, the CV analysis estimates what your profile is worth on the market.
On gross pay: France Travail adds up the gross salaries of the reference period, as reported by the employer. Because the deductions from benefit are lighter than the contributions on a salary, net benefit is a larger share of your former net pay than gross benefit is of your former gross.
No, it is not part of the reference pay, so it does not change the amount of benefit. However, the part above the legal minimum pushes back the first payment, through a capped deferral. Statutory severance pay itself delays nothing.
Yes: the pay for untaken holiday received at the end of the contract creates a deferral, worked out by dividing that amount by your daily reference pay. In practice, holiday paid out when you leave counts as days during which benefit has not yet started.
As a rule no, unless the resignation is treated as legitimate (following your partner, unpaid wages confirmed by the employment tribunal, violence at work with a police complaint, and a few other cases) or it is for a career-change project approved before you leave. Otherwise, you can ask for a review after a period out of work, or work again for a while to open new rights.
This guide gives you a method, not legal advice: the official rules and amounts are those of the sources above, as at their date.
The site's tools and features that go with this guide: the figures there are calculated by the code, never by the AI.