Unpaid or late salary in France: the steps to get paid, from reminder to urgent order

What are the steps, in order, and what does each one cost?

Each step produces a dated document that the next one uses. Do not skip the first: without a written reminder, a formal notice looks like it came out of nowhere.

1. 1

   Dated written reminder

   An email or a plain letter naming the month, the net amount expected and your usual pay date. Ask for a written answer: the answer, or the silence, becomes evidence.

   When: as soon as your usual pay date passesDocument created: email or plain letterCost: none
2. 2

   Formal notice by registered letter

   A letter that clearly demands payment, grants a stated deadline and announces the court step. It starts interest at the statutory rate without you having to prove any loss.

   When: the reminder produced nothingDocument created: registered letter with receiptBasis: Civil Code, articles 1344 and 1344-1
3. 3

   Report to the inspection du travail (labour inspectorate)

   Alongside the other steps, never instead of them. An inspector can remind the employer of the rules and record the offence, but does not recover your money for you.

   When: at any time, in parallelDocument created: written report to the DREETS (regional labour authority)Cost: none
4. 4

   Référé before the conseil de prud’hommes

   A fast-track panel of the labour court that can award an advance on the sums owed when the obligation is not seriously disputable, or order the delivery of missing payslips.

   When: the deadline in your formal notice has passedDocument created: claim form cerfa 15586*09Cost: 50 € since 1 March 2026
5. 5

   Full claim on the merits

   First the conciliation and orientation panel, which can already set an advance and order documents, then the judgment panel. This is the route when the employer genuinely disputes the amount.

   When: within three years of each unpaid due dateDocument created: claim plus a numbered evidence scheduleAdvance: six months of salary at most

Which step is mine today?

Three answers, with your payslips in front of you. The result is a category of action to check, never a hearing date or a guaranteed amount.

What does the formal notice look like?

A useful formal notice fits on one page: who you are, what is missing, how much, by when, and what happens next. Anything else weakens it.

[Your first name and SURNAME]
[Your address]
[Postcode, town]

[Employer’s name or legal representative]
[Company address]

Lettre recommandée avec avis de réception
[Town], le [date]

Objet : mise en demeure de payer les salaires dus

Madame, Monsieur,

Je suis employé(e) par [company name] depuis le [start date], en qualité de [job title].

À ce jour, les salaires suivants ne m’ont pas été versés :
- [month] : [net amount] euros
- [month] : [net amount] euros
soit un total de [total amount] euros.

La rémunération des salariés est mensuelle et son paiement est effectué une fois par mois (article L3242-1 du Code du travail). Je vous mets donc en demeure, au sens de l’article 1344 du Code civil, de me régler cette somme dans un délai de [number] jours à compter de la réception de ce courrier, et de me remettre les bulletins de paie correspondants.

À défaut de paiement dans ce délai, je saisirai le conseil de prud’hommes de [town], au besoin en référé, afin d’obtenir une provision sur les sommes dues ainsi que les intérêts au taux légal.

Je vous prie d’agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l’expression de mes salutations distinguées.

[Signature]

Pièces jointes : bulletins de paie de [month] and [month], relevés bancaires, relance adressée le [date].

My employer has not paid me: what do I do first?

Write, immediately and with a date on it. An email naming the month, the net amount expected and your usual pay date is worth more than a phone call. Under French law, pay is monthly and is made once a month (Labour Code, article L3242-1): the delay exists as soon as your usual pay period passes, even though no precise date is imposed on the employer by statute. The official fiche « Paiement du salaire » tells employees to write to the employer first, then to bring the matter before the conseil de prud’hommes (labour court).

How long do I have to claim unpaid wages in France?

Three years from the day you should have been paid. Each unpaid due date has its own starting point, so the window slides forward month by month. The claim is time-barred three years from the day the employee knew or should have known the facts, and it can cover the sums owed for the last three years, or for the three years preceding termination once the contract has ended (Labour Code, article L3245-1). The Cour de cassation (Supreme Court) applied exactly that rule, holding that back pay could go back three years before the end of the contract (Cass. soc., 15 March 2023, no. 21-16.057).

L’action en paiement ou en répétition du salaire se prescrit par trois ans à compter du jour où celui qui l’exerce a connu ou aurait dû connaître les faits lui permettant de l’exercer.Labour Code, article L3245-1 (French original)

Can I stop working if I am not being paid?

Not without risk. Simply staying away can be treated as unauthorised absence. Prise d’acte and judicial termination exist, but they are decided with a lawyer, not in a hurry. A prise d’acte (employee-initiated termination blaming the employer) ends the contract immediately and the judge decides afterwards which way it counts. It requires a breach by the employer serious enough to prevent the contract from continuing (Cass. soc., 30 March 2010, no. 08-44.236). If the judge finds the facts did not justify it, the termination becomes a resignation, with no severance and no unemployment benefit.

Lorsqu’un salarié prend acte de la rupture de son contrat de travail en raison de faits qu’il reproche à son employeur, cette rupture produit les effets, soit d’un licenciement sans cause réelle et sérieuse si les faits invoqués la justifiaient, soit, dans le cas contraire, d’une démission.Cass. soc., 25 June 2003, no. 01-42.679 (French original)

What can the labour inspectorate do about unpaid wages?

Remind the employer of the rules and record the offence. It does not recover your money and it does not decide your individual dispute. The official fiche is blunt: labour inspectors are not judges of the employment contract and do not intervene in individual disputes. The report still has value: failing to respect the rules on paying wages carries the fine set for third-class contraventions (Labour Code, article R3246-1), and a documented inspection strengthens the file you take to the labour court.

How does the urgent labour-court procedure work?

A panel of the conseil de prud’hommes rules quickly and can award an advance on the sums owed when the obligation is not seriously disputable. The text is short: where the existence of the obligation is not seriously disputable, the référé panel may award an advance to the creditor or order performance of the obligation, even an obligation to do something (Labour Code, article R1455-7), which covers handing over missing payslips. Unpaid, undisputed salary typically falls inside that frame; a genuinely argued amount falls outside it.

What if my employer goes into liquidation?

The route changes: your claims go through the court-appointed administrator, who draws up a schedule and asks the wage guarantee scheme for an advance. The scheme covers, among other things, the sums owed to employees at the date the insolvency judgment opens and the claims arising from termination inside the statutory windows (Labour Code, article L3253-8). The guarantee is capped at six times the monthly ceiling used for unemployment insurance contributions, five times where the contract was signed less than two years and six months before the opening judgment, and four times where it is less than six months old (article D3253-5).

What evidence should I gather before writing?

Contract, payslips, bank statements, schedules, written exchanges and your dated reminders. The payslip proves the sum owed, the bank statement proves it never arrived. The employer hands over a payslip when paying the salary (Labour Code, article L3243-2), so a missing payslip is itself a signal. If payslips are missing, the conciliation and orientation panel can order, if need be under a daily penalty, the delivery of payslips and of any document the employer is legally required to provide (article R1454-14).

What must the formal notice contain?

The parties, the unpaid months and their net amounts, the stated deadline to pay, the announcement of the court step, and the date. Nothing else. A debtor is put on formal notice to pay by a summons or by a document containing a sufficient demand, or, if the contract so provides, by the mere fact that the obligation has fallen due (Civil Code, article 1344): in practice, a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt that clearly demands payment. It starts interest at the statutory rate without you having to prove any loss (article 1344-1).

What does it cost to file at the conseil de prud’hommes?

Since 1 March 2026, a 50 € legal aid contribution, unless you qualify for aide juridictionnelle (legal aid). A lawyer is not compulsory. A legal aid contribution of 50 euros is levied on each case brought in civil and employment matters before a tribunal judiciaire or a conseil de prud’hommes (Tax Code, article 1635 bis Q, reinstated by the 2026 finance act). It is not owed by legal aid recipients, and no claim can be declared inadmissible without the court first inviting you to regularise within one month. The claim is filed by requête, on plain paper or on form cerfa 15586*09.

When should Julie or a lawyer take over?

Julie adds up the sums, drafts the formal notice and prepares the document list. A lawyer comes in when the employer disputes, when you consider ending the contract, or at the hearing. The fast track and the prise d’acte both commit you to choices that are hard to undo: the seriousness of the employer’s breach is assessed case by case by the judge (Cass. soc., 30 March 2010, no. 08-44.236). Representation by a lawyer is not compulsory before the conseil de prud’hommes, but a costed file and a clean evidence schedule count for more than a narrative.

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