Working in French Polynesia When You Come from Mainland France: Local Employment, Minimum Wage, Taxes and Contributions

As French Polynesia is part of the national territory, a French citizen has no visa or residence permit to apply for, according to the High Commission, which does however require a valid passport to travel there. The Country’s work authorisation system concerns foreigners, not French citizens. What applies to all candidates is the promotion and protection of local employment: the CPS pre-hiring declaration asks the employer to state the occupation’s ROME code (the French occupation classification) and to tick one of the situations provided for when the activity is subject to a protection measure.

• Person covered by the protection: someone who has lived in French Polynesia for at least 3, 5 or 10 years, depending on the length of protection required for the activity. The list of protected activities is published by the employment service (SEFI), the CPS and the labour department.
• Employer’s route: they file the vacancy with the SEFI; if no protected candidate is put forward, the SEFI issues a certificate of default, and the employer can recruit an unprotected person after a one-month period.
• Urgency: in an unforeseeable emergency, the SEFI has 72 hours to put forward a candidate; failing that, an unprotected person can only be recruited on a fixed-term contract.

For a French citizen recently arrived, length of residence therefore matters in certain professions; before accepting an offer, it is useful to check whether the activity is among the protected activities. Employees seconded by their mainland employer follow another scheme: see the glossary entry on secondment.

The labour code of French Polynesia can be consulted online (Ti’arama), and the labour department publishes practical sheets, collective agreements and their pay scales. Statutory working time is 39 hours a week or 169 hours a month (Article Lp. 3211-1); hours beyond that are overtime, whose rules appear in the code and the agreements. The employer must make a pre-hiring declaration at the earliest 8 days before work starts: it counts as an employment declaration to the CPS, a registration request, enrolment with occupational health and a hiring declaration to the labour department. A medical examination takes place before hiring or at the latest 30 days after.

As for employee rights, the CLEISS (the French centre for international social security links) describes for the general employees’ scheme: maternity leave of 16 weeks (6 before and 10 after the expected date) paid at 100% of the average salary of the last three months within the contribution ceiling, no paternity leave in the scheme, daily sickness allowances paid by the employer at 100% for the first three days, advanced by the employer up to the thirtieth day and reimbursed by the CPS, then paid by the CPS at 75% of salary (up to 90% with three or more dependent children), for 18 months at most. See also the definition of the local contract.

The Country’s public service states that the guaranteed inter-professional minimum hourly wage is of the order of CFP 1,025 an hour, i.e. about CFP 173,000 for 169 hours (calculated from the hourly rate). This amount is revised by order: the amount in force should be checked with the labour department. Pay scales by industry (construction, hotels, insurance, etc.) are published with the collective agreements.

The ISPF measures an average gross full-time-equivalent salary of the order of CFP 360,000 a month, i.e. an hourly rate of about CFP 2,100, with an average working time of 148 hours a month. For comparison, the ISPF (the local statistics institute) measures a price level about 30% higher than in mainland France. For State civil servants, salary is increased by a coefficient of 1.84 in the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands and of 2.08 in the other subdivisions (order of 28 July 1967, in force according to Légifrance).

Every individual domiciled in French Polynesia is subject to the territorial solidarity contribution (CST) as soon as they receive employment income (salaries, wages, allowances, bonuses) or replacement income (pensions, retirement pensions, annuities), according to the tax and public contributions department (DICP). The CST on salaries and pensions (CST-S) is withheld by the employer or the paying body located in the territory, which spares the employee any steps. The scale is published by the DICP and does not appear on the pages read; it is therefore not reproduced here.

• Income from several sources or a payer outside the territory: the taxpayer declares the sums received themselves, every six months (CST-M), at the latest on the last day of the month following the end of the half-year, for example 31 July for the first half-year, deducting the CST-S already withheld.
• Non-salaried professions: rates of 0.75% to 5% for service providers and professionals and of 0.4% to 3.25% for traders, according to the Country’s public service.
• Investment income: a 5% CST.
• Exempt allowances: maintenance payments and annuities, as well as allowances and annuities for industrial accidents and occupational diseases, are not subject to the CST.

There is no overall income tax here comparable to that of mainland France: the DICP applies a tax system specific to the Country. For the link with French tax on income from mainland sources, see the page on retiring in French Polynesia.

The CLEISS publishes the following rates for employees: health 9.96% borne by the employer and 4.98% by the employee, up to CFP 5,000,000 a month; old age, band A (up to CFP 269,000) 15.69% and 7.84%, band B (from CFP 269,000 to 525,000) 11.62% and 5.81%; industrial accidents 0.77% borne by the employer, up to CFP 3,000,000; family benefits 0% or 4.16% depending on the sector, up to CFP 750,000. The total employee share is 18.63%. The employer withholds the employee’s contribution and pays the whole amount each month.

The employees’ scheme has no unemployment insurance to date, according to the CLEISS. It does, however, provide family allowances (CFP 15,000 per child per month up to CFP 100,000 of monthly income, CFP 12,000 above), a back-to-school allowance and prenatal allowances. Retirement opens at 62, with an optional Agirc-Arrco supplementary scheme in the territory.

A self-employed person is affiliated to the CPS non-salaried scheme when their declared average gross monthly income reaches CFP 87,346 (CFP 97,346 for a household), they have lived in the territory for more than six months and they do not come under another compulsory scheme; country law no. 2026-1 of 8 January 2026 is cited by the CLEISS for the affiliation conditions and checks. Health and maternity insurance is compulsory, while industrial accident cover and retirement are voluntary. The scheme’s contribution rates are published by the CPS in a contribution sheet that could not be read directly.

For remote work by an employee who keeps a mainland employer, the rule is that of the place of activity unless there is a secondment: decree no. 94-1146 provides for continued affiliation to the home scheme for three years at most, with forms 980-01 and 980-04, detailed in the page on healthcare reimbursement in French Polynesia. The pages on the digital nomad and on working abroad give general benchmarks, to be adapted to a territory of the Republic.

According to the ISPF, the growth of the Polynesian economy is moderate, against a background of generally moderate inflation. It is driven by external demand: tourist numbers and exports of pearl products rise, while household consumption rises little. GDP per inhabitant is about half that of mainland France in current value.

On the labour market, the ISPF’s employment survey counts a little over 100,000 people in work, more than a quarter of them non-salaried, an employment rate below 60% among 15-64 year-olds and more than 25,000 people unemployed or in its halo; about 10,000 employees work for the State, about a quarter of them declared to the CPS, the others being registered with mainland Sécurité sociale (French social security). The currency is the Pacific franc (CFP franc), whose parity with the euro is fixed and written into the French monetary and financial code according to the IEOM. The “Economic benchmarks” block above uses international series that may differ from the local statistics cited here.