Retirement: What's Changing for Parents as of September 1
Two decrees dated July 29 apply to pensions effective as of September 1. The average annual salary will be calculated based on 24 or 23 years for parents, and two quarters related to children now count toward the long-career period.
This is a low-key reform, published in the Official Journal on July 31—right in the middle of summer—and it will take effect for pensions paid out on or after September 1. Two decrees dated July 29, bearing the same title and numbered 2026-699 and 2026-700, correct calculation mechanisms for which women bore the bulk of the cost.
The first change concerns the average annual wage (SAM), the basis on which the general pension scheme’s benefits are calculated. Until now, pensions were calculated based on the twenty-five best years. For insured individuals who have had a child, the number of years considered is reduced to twenty-four. For those with two or more children, it drops to twenty-three. As a result, the lowest-earning years of a person’s career—often those involving maternity leave, involuntary part-time work, and career breaks—are excluded from the calculation. The law applies to the general pension system, local and hospital civil service employees, state-employed manual laborers, clerks and notary employees, agricultural workers (both salaried and self-employed), as well as residents of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. It also establishes a one-quarter bonus for women in the civil service who gave birth after January 1, 2004, provided that the birth occurred after their hiring.
Two quarters that qualify you for early retirement
The second decree addresses another issue—one that is more technical but has immediate effects. Early retirement based on a long career requires a certain number of quarters of contributions, not just quarters that have been credited. However, quarters credited for children, maternity, education, adoption, and parental leave did not previously count as contribution quarters. They will now be counted as such, up to a limit of two quarters per insured person. For a woman who is just a few quarters short of the threshold, this could mean the difference between retiring one year versus the next.
The quantitative assessment of these measures remains incomplete. Estimates circulating at the time the legislation was published suggest an average increase of about 1% in pension benefits, with one in two retirees who had children affected by the SAM reform, and between 6,000 and 12,000 additional early retirements per year. No official consolidated figures have been published at this stage. One pension point on a pension of 1,400 euros represents about 15 euros per month—just under 200 euros per year—paid out for the rest of the recipient’s life.
The suspension of the 2023 reform takes effect
September 1 marks a second deadline, with much broader implications. The suspension of the increase in the legal retirement age—enacted in the Social Security Financing Act for 2026 on December 16, 2025, and specified by three decrees dated May 7, 2026—applies to retirements taking effect from that date through January 2028. Those born in 1963 or later gain three to six months, depending on their year of birth.
The new schedule temporarily sets the legal retirement age at 62 years and 9 months for insured individuals born in 1963, 1964, and the first quarter of 1965. It rises to 63 years for those born between April and December 1965, to 63 years and 3 months for the 1966 cohort, to 63 years and 6 months for 1967, to 63 years and 9 months for 1968, and then reaches 64 years for the 1969 and 1970 cohorts. The requirements vary depending on the plan: the local government employees’ pension fund applies slightly different criteria for its sedentary and active members. An insured person born in 1964 or in the first quarter of 1965 needs 170 quarters; the required insurance period then increases to 172.
These two texts do not replace existing provisions; they are in addition to them. The extension of the insurance period under the general system—eight quarters per child for employed mothers, four for maternity and four for child-rearing—remains in effect. The new decrees change how these quarters are counted for eligibility for early retirement, as well as the number of years used to calculate the benefit amount. These are two separate factors that are combined.
These gains come as pension funding returns to the budget debate. Among the options being discussed for the 2027 budget is a pension adjustment below the inflation rate for the wealthiest retirees, without any nominal reduction. Nothing has been finalized yet, and the draft budget bill has not been introduced. For a beneficiary nearing retirement, the only reliable certainty is the current law: those who meet the eligibility requirements as of September 1 should have their estimates recalculated, since pension funds do not apply the new parameters retroactively to pensions that have already been paid out.
