Student jobs in France: hours, pay, and how to find one in 2026

What a student job in France really is

Studying in France and want to earn alongside your courses? It is common and clearly regulated. Whether you are an EU student or arrived from further afield, you can hold a part-time job during term and work more over the holidays, as long as you stay inside the rules below.

French law has no single "student contract". Students take standard contracts adapted to a study schedule: a fixed-term CDD, a seasonal contract for summer work, or an open-ended CDI for a steady weekend job.

Which sectors hire students

The roles that fit a student timetable cluster in a few areas:

• Hospitality and food service: cafes, restaurants and catering, mostly evenings and weekends
• Retail: shops and supermarkets, with a hiring spike around the sales seasons
• Delivery and logistics: flexible shifts, strong demand in the big cities
• Tutoring and childcare: private lessons ("soutien scolaire") and babysitting pay well by the hour
• Customer support and call centres: evening slots that fit around classes

Bigger cities such as Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Lille have the deepest pool of these openings, simply because there are more employers.

Pay, hours and contracts to expect

Pay starts at the French minimum wage, the SMIC, which is 12.31 euros gross an hour as of mid-2026, roughly 9.74 euros net once social contributions come out. Many student roles pay at or just above that, while tutoring or bar shifts with tips can pay more.

The hours cap is the part that matters most:

• EU and EEA students: no legal limit. You balance work and study yourself.
• Non-EU students: up to 964 hours a year, about 20 hours a week in term time and full-time during breaks. That is 60 percent of a full French working year, and the count resets on 1 January, so plan around the calendar year, not the academic one.
• Students from Algeria have a separate 480-hour limit under a 1968 agreement.

Worth knowing: students under 26 can earn up to about 5,200 euros a year, three times the monthly SMIC, free of income tax. Most working students pay no income tax on a part-time wage.

How to find and apply

Browse live openings by country and role, then filter for part-time and your city:

• Jobs in France - the full catalog, updated daily
• Sales jobs in France - retail and customer-facing roles that suit students
• Software developer jobs in France - for tech students building experience
• Data analyst jobs in France
• Engineer jobs in France

Apply early for summer work. The best seasonal openings fill months ahead.

Your rights and the rules to know

• You are entitled to at least the SMIC, holiday pay pro-rata, and the same workplace protections as any other employee.
• Non-EU students do not need a separate work permit for jobs inside the 964-hour cap. Your student residence permit or VLS-TS covers it. Going over the cap can put your permit renewal at risk, so keep track of your hours.
• A mandatory internship that is part of your degree does not count toward the 964 hours, but an internship longer than two months must pay at least 4.35 euros an hour.