Philippines vs France Offshore Developer Costs in 2026

A software engineer in France earns a little over four times what one in the Philippines earns, on the same Levels.fyi title. French employer charges then add about 40% on top of the salary, against about 15% in Manila.

Those two numbers drive Philippines vs France offshore developer costs for a French company, or a US company weighing a team in Paris. The clock, the notice rules and the bill for five engineers settle the rest.

What a software engineer earns in each country

Levels.fyi publishes pay for the same “Software Engineer” title in both markets. Read on 19 October 2026, the France page gives a median total pay of €58,596 a year from 1,201 submissions. The Philippines page gives ₱967,890 from 97 submissions.

At the European Central Bank reference rates for 19 October 2026, taken through the Frankfurter API, one dollar bought EUR 0.89087 or PHP 62.998. The French median converts to about $65,774 and the Philippine median to $15,364.

The ranges do not touch. A Filipino engineer at the 75th percentile earns less than half of a French engineer at the 25th. French pay also runs well below German pay on the same title: our Philippines vs Germany comparison puts the German median near €84,900. France’s payroll charges narrow that gap.

Employer costs in France

PwC’s tax summary for France gives the short version: the employer’s share of social contributions averages about 45% of gross salary, and the average falls as pay rises because several items stop at a ceiling. The 2026 ceiling, the plafond annuel de la sécurité sociale (PASS), is €48,060. A median engineer earns about €10,500 above it.

The breakdown below uses the 2026 rate tables from URSSAF and Agirc-Arrco, applied to a cadre on €58,596 at a company with fewer than 11 employees.

Health, maternity, disability and death (maladie). 13% of all pay, from the employer alone. In 2026 the reduced 7% rate applies only to employers in specific exemption schemes, per URSSAF.

State pension (vieillesse). 8.55% up to the PASS plus 2.11% on all pay. At the median that is 9.1% of salary.

Supplementary pension (Agirc-Arrco). The employer pays 4.72% plus a 1.29% balancing contribution on pay up to the PASS, and 12.95% plus 1.62% on pay between one and eight times the PASS. A further 0.21% applies across both bands once pay passes the ceiling, and cadres add 0.036% for Apec, the executives’ employment agency. Together that is 7.8% at the median.

Family allowances. 5.25% of all pay. The reduced 3.45% rate is now limited to the same exemption schemes.

Unemployment insurance and AGS. 4.00% for unemployment and 0.25% for the wage guarantee fund, both on pay up to €192,240, four times the PASS. Together 4.25%.

Cadre provident cover. Article 1 of the national agreement of 17 November 2017 requires the employer alone to pay 1.50% of pay up to the ceiling into death and disability cover for cadres, as CMS Francis Lefebvre summarises. That is 1.2% at the median.

Training, apprenticeship and smaller items. Training is 0.55% below 11 employees and 1% from 11, and the apprenticeship tax adds 0.59% plus a 0.09% balance: 1.23% for a small employer. The autonomy contribution (CSA) at 0.30%, the housing fund (Fnal) at 0.10% up to the ceiling and 0.016% for social dialogue add 0.4%.

That adds up to 42.3% of gross pay. One deduction then comes off it.

The general reduction (RGDU). In 2026, a single sliding reduction applies to pay below 2.9293 times the June 2026 minimum wage, about €65,600 a year. The formula on URSSAF’s RGDU page has a 2% floor, and at the median it gives 2.28% of pay. Net of the reduction, the employer pays about 40.0% on top of salary.

Three costs sit outside that 40%:

• Workplace accident insurance (AT-MP). Each employer is notified of its own rate, so it is left out here.
• Versement mobilité. A transport levy for employers with 11 or more staff. The 2024 finance law raised the ceiling for Paris and the inner suburbs to 3.20%, as a Senate amendment to the 2026 budget recalls.
• Company health cover. Every employer must fund at least 50% of a collective complementary health plan, per URSSAF.

The reduction also creates a cliff. Above about €65,600 it stops, so a French engineer at the Levels.fyi 75th percentile, €73,365, costs about 42.0% on top of pay. Larger employers pay the 1% training rate and 0.50% Fnal on all pay, which pushes the figure up again.

Working time and leave. The legal working week is 35 hours, or 1,607 hours a year. Cadres who organise their own schedule can instead work under a forfait jours, an annual day count of at most 218 days. Every employee earns 2.5 days of paid leave (jours ouvrables) a month, 30 jours ouvrables or five weeks a year.

Employer costs in the Philippines

Philippine statutory costs are lighter, and the biggest ones stop at low salary ceilings.

SSS. The employer pays 10% of the monthly salary credit, capped at ₱35,000, plus ₱30 for employees’ compensation cover, according to SSS. On a median engineer’s ₱80,658 a month, that stops at ₱3,530, or 4.4% of pay.

PhilHealth. The premium is 5% of monthly basic salary, between a ₱10,000 floor and a ₱100,000 ceiling, per PhilHealth Advisory 2025-0002. A 2026 advisory keeps the rate, and employer and employee split it equally, as Sprout’s worked example shows: 2.5% for the employer.

Pag-IBIG. Employers remit 2% of a monthly fund salary capped at ₱10,000 since February 2024, per Forvis Mazars’ summary of Circular 460. That is ₱200 a month, or 0.2% at the median.

13th-month pay. Presidential Decree 851 requires one-twelfth of the year’s basic salary, paid by 24 December. It adds 8.3%.

Night shift differential. Article 86 of the Labor Code adds at least 10% of the regular wage for each hour worked between 10pm and 6am. A Filipino engineer covering the full Paris day on a 4pm to midnight shift works two of eight hours inside that window, which adds 2.5% to pay.

Computed from the sources above at each country's Levels.fyi median, 19 October 2026.

Time zones: Paris and Manila

Manila runs on UTC+8 and has not used daylight saving time since 1991, as the Philippine Standard Time entry records. Paris runs on CET, UTC+1, and on CEST, UTC+2, from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. In 2026 that is 29 March to 25 October, the date of this post, when French clocks go back an hour.

Manila is six hours ahead of Paris in summer and seven in winter, so from today until late March a 9am start in Paris is 4pm in Manila.

The 2pm to 10pm row is the cheapest useful option. It ends as the night differential begins and covers six to seven hours of the Paris day.

Full overlap needs a later shift. A 3pm to 11pm Manila day matches the Paris summer with one hour of night pay, and 4pm to midnight matches the winter with two.

English in France and the Philippines

The EF English Proficiency Index 2025 ranks France 38th of 123 countries with a score of 539, above the global average of 488. The Philippines ranks 28th with 569.

The city scores sit closer together than the national ones. The bigger gap is in the working language. A Filipino team works in English by default. A French company that writes specs, tickets and code review in French would have to switch to English for an offshore team.

Whatever the country average, we test every offshore developer at C1 English or above before a client sees a profile. For the other checks worth running, see our guide on how to vet offshore developers.

Probation, notice and ending a contract

French law gives cadres a long probation and long notice. Philippine law gives six months to judge a hire and a predictable redundancy cost after that. None of this is legal advice.

France. The Labour Code allows an initial probation of up to four months for cadres on a permanent contract, renewable once, to eight months in total, when a branch agreement permits it and the employee agrees in writing. The Syntec agreement, the branch agreement for engineering and consulting firms (IDCC 1486), uses that rule: four months for engineers and cadres, renewable once, according to the labour ministry’s Code du travail numérique.

After probation, the statutory notice period for a dismissal is one month between six months’ and two years’ service, and two months after that. Syntec sets three months for engineers and cadres, whether the employer dismisses or the employee resigns.

A dismissed employee with at least eight months’ service is owed the statutory severance: a quarter of a month’s pay per year for the first ten years, and a third of a month for each year after.

Most negotiated exits use the rupture conventionnelle, an agreed termination. Neither side can impose it, the payment cannot fall below the statutory or sector severance, either party can withdraw within 15 calendar days of signing, and the labour authority then has 15 working days to approve it.

The Philippines. The Labor Code caps probation at six months, and a regular employee can then be dismissed only for a just or authorised cause. An employee who resigns gives at least one month’s written notice. A redundancy needs written notice to the employee and the labour department at least one month ahead, and at least one month’s pay per year of service.

The Philippine leave figure comes from Article 95 of the Labor Code. Philippine redundancy pay is higher per year of service, but on a salary about a quarter of the French one, with a month’s notice rather than three.

What five engineers cost for a year

For a team of five at each country’s median pay, direct employment means salary plus the statutory costs above, converted at the 19 October rates.

The direct figures leave out three things:

• The cost of employing anyone at all: a local company or an employer of record, payroll, recruiting fees, laptops and the time spent replacing a hire who leaves.
• The French items outside the 40%: accident insurance, the transport levy from 11 staff and the employer’s half of the health plan.
• The spread around the median, which the pay chart shows is wide in both countries.

At the top of our range, five Filipino offshore developers cost about 78% of the French direct figure. At the bottom, about 33%. Our UK and Belgium comparisons run the same model.

When France wins, and when the Philippines does

France fits when

• The team works in French, or supports French customers by phone and on site.
• The work depends on a full shared European day and meetings in person.
• Your contracts require staff employed in France or the EU.
• You already run a French entity and the salary gap matters less than proximity.

The Philippines fits when

• The team already works in English and in writing: tickets, pull requests and recorded demos.
• Six to seven hours of overlap on a 2pm to 10pm Manila shift covers your meetings.
• You are hiring several engineers and want the per-head saving to compound.
• You want to avoid three-month notice periods and a 40% payroll charge on every hire.

Hire offshore developers with Hire Offshore

We do not hire in France. We hire in the Philippines, Vietnam and India, and we shortlist 6 to 8 vetted offshore developers within 24 hours and complete the hire in about 2 weeks. The monthly fee of $2,499 to $5,999 covers salary, payroll, equipment and fees, with no upfront cost and a 90-day replacement guarantee.

We agree the schedule before the offer, so a Filipino offshore developer can work a shift that fits Paris as well as one that fits a US day. Filipino offshore developers cover stacks such as PHP and Java. Check pricing or send us the role.

FAQ

How much cheaper is a Filipino software engineer than a French one?

In salary, a Filipino engineer costs a little under a quarter as much. Median software engineer pay on Levels.fyi is about $15,400 a year in the Philippines against $65,800 in France. With employer costs, a French engineer costs about $92,100 a year directly, and a Filipino engineer about $17,700 on a day schedule.

What are employer social charges in France in 2026?

At a median engineer’s €58,596, about 42.3% of gross pay before the general reduction and 40.0% after it, for a company under 11 staff. Health insurance at 13%, the state pension at 9.1% and Agirc-Arrco at 7.8% are the largest items.

How many hours does Manila overlap with Paris?

One to two hours on a standard 9 to 5 day in both cities. A Manila shift from 2pm to 10pm overlaps six to seven hours of the Paris day and avoids the Philippine night shift differential, which starts at 10pm.

Does a 35-hour week apply to French software engineers?

The legal working week is 35 hours, or 1,607 hours a year. Cadres who organise their own schedule can work under a forfait jours instead, a contract counted in days, capped at 218 days a year. Either way, every employee earns five weeks of paid leave.

What is the notice period for a cadre in France?

By law, one month between six months’ and two years’ service and two months after that. The Syntec agreement for engineering and consulting firms sets three months for engineers and cadres, for a dismissal or a resignation.

Can I hire offshore developers in the Philippines on Paris hours?

Yes. We agree the schedule before the offer. A 2pm to 10pm Manila shift covers most of the Paris day, and a later shift covers all of it, with the Labor Code’s 10% night premium on any hours after 10pm.