Duration of pension insurance for private sector employees

Verified 01 January 2026 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

The amount of your pension depends on your duration of pension insurance. The duration of pension insurance mainly includes periods worked and paid in. But it also includes certain periods of non-contribution. We present you the information to know.

Vidéo - My career and pension rights
Credits : Retirement insurance

What is a quarter in most basic pension plans?

The duration of insurance is expressed in quarters.

A maximum of 4 quarters per year can be validated.

The validation of a quarter does not depend on the actual duration of work but on the income received and more precisely on the amount of income subject to contributions.

Imagine a student working 35 hours a week at the minimum wage in August.

These revenues can allow him to validate a quarter.

How do I know how many quarters I have earned?

By creating your personal space on our website www.lassuranceretraite.fr, you directly access your career statement with all the quarters acquired since the beginning of your activity.

Tools can also be used to obtain estimates of your retirement amount.

What are the quarters taken into account for my retirement?

When you retire, to determine your insurance term, we take into account different types of quarters:

  • Quarters contributed that resulted in contributions being made
  • The so-called assimilated quarters which correspond to periods of interruption of work: unemployment, sickness, invalidity, maternity, military service and for employees only, the
  • And the terms that can be granted to you, especially if you have had or raised one or more children, if you have had a disabled adult to care for, or for employees only if you have a professional prevention account.

A qualifying quarter or a granted quarter has the same value as a contributory quarter to determine your term of insurance.

The quarters contributed, the quarters assimilated and the quarters granted count in the same way.

On the other hand, the calculation of retirement also takes into account the best years of income.

A work stoppage can therefore have an impact on the amount of your retirement.

Caution: some devices nevertheless require a minimum period of insurance, such as early departure for a long career.

For more information, visit our website www.lassuranceretraite.fr

The duration of pension insurance means the periods of your professional life during which you build up pension rights.

The duration of pension insurance is recognized in quarters.

Your number of quarters of pension insurance is one of the taken into account for calculate the amount of your pension.

To have entitlement to a full pension, you must:

  • Either have a set number of quarters of pension insurance
  • Or retire at age 67 no matter how many quarters you have.

The number of quarters required to be entitled to a pension at full rate before age 67 depends on your year of birth :

Tableau - Employee - Conditions for granting a full pension

You were born:

You can retire from:

Number of quarters required to have the full rate

Automatic Full Rate Age

Between 1er January 1958 and December 31, 1960

62 years

167 (41 years 9 months)

67 years

Between 1er January 1961 and August 31, 1961

62 years

168 (42 years old)

67 years

Between 1er September 1961 and December 31, 1961

62 years and 3 months

169 (42 years 3 months)

67 years

In 1962

62 years and 6 months

169 (42 years 3 months)

67 years

Between 1er January 1963 and March 31, 1965

62 years and 9 months

170 (42 years 6 months)

67 years

Between 1er April 1965 and December 31, 1965

63 years

171 (42 years 9 months)

67 years

In 1966

63 years and 3 months

172 (43 years old)

67 years

In 1967

63 years and 6 months

172 (43 years old)

67 years

In 1968

63 years and 9 months

172 (43 years old)

67 years

From 1er January 1969

64 years

172 (43 years old)

67 years

If you retire before age 67 without having the number of quarters required, the amount of your pension is reduced according to the number of quarters you are missing. This reduction is called the haircut.

If you have worked in sectors other than the private sector and contributed to several pension funds, this is your total duration of insurance, all plans combined, which is taken into account in determining whether or not you are entitled to full-rate retirement pensions.

Method of calculating quarters

Your pension insurance term includes periods during which you worked and contributed on a minimum wage.

Quarters are posted based on annual amount of your income subject to contributions. The number of quarters validated does not depend on the number of calendar quarters worked except the year of retirement.

Since 2014, on minimum income which allows validate 1 quarter is equal to the amount of Smic: titleContent gross hours in effect at 1er January of the year multiplied by 150 hours, or €1,803.00.

Thus, to validate:

  • 1 quarter, you need a gross annual income of ​€1,803.00
  • 2 quarters, you need a gross annual income of 2 times €1,803.00, or €3,606
  • 3 quarters, you need a gross annual income of 3 times €1,803.00, or €5,409
  • 4 quarters, you need a gross annual income of 4 times €1,803.00, or €7,212.

Pension contributions are calculated each month within the limit of the monthly Social Security ceiling (€4,005 gross in 2025). Therefore, the Pension Insurance is valid for a maximum of 2 quarters in one month.

From 1972 to 2013, the minimum income to validate 1 quarter was the amount of the Hourly minimum wage Gross in effect during each period worked, multiplied by 200 hours.

The year you retired, the number of quarters selected is the combination of the number of quarters validated by your salary limited to the number of calendar quarters worked on the date of your retirement.

In the event of retirement duringcalendar yearHowever, the contribution count ends on the last day of the calendar quarter preceding the date of your retirement.

For example, in case of retirement at 1er in september, the contribution count ends on 30 june. Even if your salary is valid for 4 quarters, only 2 are retained.

The number of insurance quarters is limited to 4 par calendar year.

However, quarters granted free of charge (known as increases in the duration of insurance) for children in particular, are not charged to a particular year.

Non-contributory periods taken into account

Your pension insurance term also includes periods without contributions, in particular:

  • Sick leave periods or periods during which you received daily allowances: 1 quarter is validated for each 60-day compensation period
  • Maternity leave during which you received daily allowances: 1 quarter is validated for each 90-day compensation period
  • Periods during which you have received a permanent disability pension equal to or greater than 66% : 1 quarter is validated for each calendar quarter which includes 3 monthly installments of your disability pension
  • Periods during which you received a disability pension: 1 quarter is validated for each calendar quarter which includes 3 monthly installments of your disability pension
  • National service: 1 quarter is validated for 90 days of incorporation.
  • Periods of short-time work from 1er march 2020: it is validated 1 quarter for 220 hours compensated
  • Internship periods: Internships that you have taken as a job seeker and the following internships are taken into account: Works of collective utility (Tuc), Practical internships in a company, Internships Young volunteers, Local integration programs, Internships for initiation to professional life: 1 quarter is validated for each period of 50 days of internship.
  • Quarters granted as caregiver, in your family home, for the permanent care of an adult with a disability with a permanent disability at least equal to 80% : 1 quarter is validated per period of 30 months, up to a maximum of 8 quarters (the person accompanied must be your spouse or one of your ascendants or descendants or a collateral or an ascendant, descendant or collateral of your spouse

Others situations may be taken into account (periods of pre-trial detention, period of inclusion on the list of high-level athletes, period of voluntary service, etc.).

The year you retired, the conditions for taking into account periods without contributions may not lead to a greater number of quarters than the number of quarters actually elapsed up to the date of your retirement.

For example, if you retire on 1er july and are on sick leave for {1}er january to june 30 (i.e. 181 days), a quarter can be validated for 60 compensated days off but only 2 quarters will be retained corresponding to the 2 quarters actually elapsed between the 1er January and June 30.

You can consult your career record, which summarizes your pension insurance term, on the Info-Retraite website in your retirement account using the service My career / See my career.

If you have worked in sectors other than the private sector, your career statement summarizes all your different professional periods in chronological order.

You can print and download your career statement in PDF format.

From 55 years old, you can report to your pension plans any discrepancies in your career statement, and request correction (missing job, inconsistency, etc.) using the service My career / Correcting my career.

Your pension funds are informed directly. You can then track their processing on your retirement account using the service My steps / Follow my requests.

Info Retirement - My retirement account

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