Working in Malta as a French National: Right to Work, Minimum Wage, Contract, Tax and Contributions

Identità, the Maltese agency for residence documents, states that a citizen of the European Union does not need a permit to reside and work in Malta. A French national can therefore start working before receiving their residence card, provided the job is still registered with Jobsplus, the public employment service. For each hire, the employer fills in an online engagement form on the Jobsplus portal and, at the end of the contract, a termination form.

For a stay of more than three months, the employee registers their residence with Identità and shows active registration with Jobsplus, with their employment contract or a recent payslip; the page on living in Malta details these formalities. The guide to working abroad helps you prepare the departure on the French side.

Ministerial order 289 of 2025, in force since 1 January 2026, sets the national weekly minimum wage, for a normal working week, at 229.44 euros from age 18, 222.66 euros at 17 and 219.82 euros under 17. For part-time employees, the calculation is proportional, at the same hourly rate as a comparable full-time employee or, where there is no sectoral scale, at the national minimum divided by 40. Eurostat, which converts national minimum wages into euros, records 994 euros a month in Malta in the second half of 2026, against 1,867 euros in France.

• Average wage: according to the labour force survey for the second quarter of 2026, the average basic monthly salary of employees is estimated at 2,282 euros; it ranges from 1,412 euros for elementary occupations to 3,657 euros for senior managers (NSO, 11 September 2026).
• Sectors: the highest basic salary by sector is recorded in financial and insurance activities, at 3,021 euros a month.
• Working time: people in employment work 35.3 hours a week on average, 37.3 hours for full-timers and 20.5 hours for part-timers (NSO).

The Department for Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) states that an employee on 40 hours a week is entitled to paid leave of at least four weeks and 32 hours, i.e. 192 hours a year. Public holidays and national feast days are paid in full; when a public holiday falls on a rest day, an extra day of leave is added. Up to 50% of leave can be carried over to the following year with the employer’s agreement, and the minimum four weeks (160 hours) cannot be replaced by a payment, except at the end of the contract.

• Sick leave: the social security daily allowance requires 50 weeks of contributions over the career and 20 weekly contributions over the last two years; it is paid after three waiting days during which the employer continues to pay, for 156 days at most, at 14.92 euros a day in 2023 (CLEISS, the French liaison centre for European and international social security, page of 2023). The employer pays the difference with the usual salary.
• Maternity: 14 weeks of leave paid at full salary by the employer, at least six of them after the birth, then a flat-rate social security allowance for four additional weeks, i.e. 18 weeks in all (CLEISS, 2023). Paternity leave lasts 10 days since 2 August 2022; parental leave is four months per parent, two of them paid.
• Unemployment: the allowance requires 50 weeks of contributions and registration with Jobsplus; it reaches 9.13 euros a day in 2023 and lasts 156 days at most (CLEISS).

The local contract status opens access to this scheme; benefits in kind (care) are described in the page on healthcare reimbursement in Malta.

The Maltese tax administration (MTCA) publishes separate scales for single people, married couples and parents. For 2026, the scale for a single person is 0% up to 12,000 euros of taxable income, 15% from 12,001 to 16,000 euros, 25% from 16,001 to 60,000 euros and 35% above; the scale for married couples starts at 0% up to 15,000 euros and that for parents up to 13,000 euros, with wider bands for one or two children and more.

• Tax residence: residence depends not on nationality but on facts. A person present for more than 183 days during a year is resident for that year; a person who settles in order to establish their residence is resident from arrival. People who are domiciled and ordinarily resident in Malta declare their income from all sources; those who are not domiciled or not ordinarily resident declare their Maltese income and income remitted to Malta (MTCA, page updated on 29 August 2025).
• Visiting employee: a national of a country linked to Malta by a convention is not taxable in Malta on remuneration for work carried out in Malta if their presence does not exceed 183 days over 12 months, if the employer is not a resident of Malta and if the cost is not borne by a Maltese permanent establishment (MTCA).
• France-Malta convention: signed in Valletta on 25 July 1977, in force since 1 October 1979, it was amended by the protocols of 8 July 1994 and 29 August 2008 (in force since 1 June 2010) (BOFiP, the French tax administration’s official doctrine, impots.gouv.fr). It provides a tax credit to avoid double taxation; the page on retiring in Malta details the treatment of pensions.

Class 1 contributions for employees are paid half by the employee and half by the employer. For 2026, the MTCA publishes the following scales. For people born on or after 1 January 1962, a basic weekly wage between 229.45 and 559.30 euros gives rise to a contribution of 10% for each of the two parties, then to a fixed amount of 55.93 euros beyond; for people born before 1962, the band ends at 490.38 euros and the fixed amount is 49.04 euros. Up to 229.44 euros a week, the contribution is 22.94 euros for an adult, or 10% of the wage if the employee chooses it, which then opens pro rata contributory rights. The employer also pays a maternity contribution of 0.30% or 1.68 euros a week.

• Self-employed: class 2 applies to anyone whose income from an economic activity exceeds 910 euros a year. For 2026, the contribution is 36.18 euros a week for annual net income between 910 and 12,543.72 euros. For people born in 1962 or later, it is 15% of income from 12,543.73 to 29,083.35 euros, then 83.89 euros a week; the income taken into account is that of the previous year.
• Seconded employee: an employee sent by a French employer remains attached to the French scheme with the A1 form, for 24 months at most (Your Europe, the European Union’s portal). See secondment versus expatriation and the glossary entry on the seconded employee.

The official pages consulted do not describe a specific regime for remote work. An employee who works remotely from Malta for an employer established in another country checks two points: their tax residence, which depends in particular on the 183 days of presence (MTCA), and the State responsible for their social protection, according to the European coordination rules described by the CLEISS. Individual advice helps avoid double affiliation.

A self-employed person registers with the Maltese tax and social security administrations, contributes in class 2 and obtains their residence document on the basis of self-employed activity (Identità). Digital nomads will find a starting point in the page on digital nomad insurance.

Malta uses the euro, and its growth, price and unemployment indicators are tracked in the “Economic indicators” block of this page. In the second quarter of 2026, the NSO estimates employment at 339,935 people, 3.4% more than a year earlier; self-employed workers account for 13.5% of people with a main job and 41.1% of people in employment hold a higher-education degree.

For an employee, health cover depends on registration with social security; the page on the Maltese healthcare system describes access to care.