Wage guarantee scheme (AGS)

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

The wage guarantee scheme (AGS) guarantees the payment of sums due to employees (wages, notice, severance pay, etc.) in the event of safeguard proceedings, judicial reorganization or judicial liquidation. This guarantee is financed by a mandatory employer contribution for all employers.

Any employer must pay an AGS contribution to finance the risk of non-payment of remuneration due to employees in the event of collective procedure.

Who has to pay the AGS?

Any employer, whether an individual contractor (IC) or a business, must pay the AGS Guarantee Plan contribution.

All activities are concerned: commercial, artisanal or liberal.

What is the AGS contribution rate?

The AGS is a membership fee only at the expense of the employer (i.e. an “employer contribution”). It is recovered by the Urssaf on behalf of the unemployment insurance scheme.

The AGS contribution is set at 0.25% salaries used as a basis for calculating unemployment insurance contributions.

The AGS contribution is due for a full-time employee in the limit of 4 monthly social security ceilings (or the sum of €16,020 in 2026).

Who benefits from AGS?

All employees linked to the company by an employment contract can benefit from the AGS including employees posted abroad or expatriates.

The apprentices and employees temporary workers also benefit from the AGS.

The benefit of the AGS guarantee is immediate for the employee, regardless of his seniority in the company. Thus, the remuneration of a newly hired employee is guaranteed by the AGS in the event of judicial recovery.

FYI  

The chief executive officers (such as the presidents of SAS: titleContent) who are not employees do not benefit from the AGS.

The AGS guarantees the payment of sums due to employees when 2 conditions the following are combined:

  • The employer is in backup procedure, judicial recovery or bankruptcy.
  • The employer does not have the funds available to pay the employees.

The receivables employees (i.e. remuneration, profit-sharing, the participation) are covered by the AGS only when a collective procedure is open.

Warning  

In the backup procedure, the company is not yet in cessation of payments. It must therefore prove that its funds are insufficient to pay salaries.

The implementation of the AGS guarantee follows a special procedure.

The employee cannot contact the AGS directly but he can claim that his wages unpaid are entered on a statement of salary claims drawn up by the judicial representative.

Indeed, when the employer is the subject of a safeguard, judicial reorganization or judicial liquidation procedure, the commercial (or judicial) court appoints a judicial representative. The latter is responsible for verifying that there are no other arrangements that can cover claims owed to employees (for example: guarantee fund for paid leave, temporary workers, partial activity financed by the State and Unedic, etc.). It also confirms that the company does not have the funds available to pay wage claims.

Once these elements have been verified, the judicial representative identifies the employer's salary claims in a statement of salary claims and sends it to the AGS, which advances the necessary funds.

The extent of the amounts guaranteed by the AGS depends on the collective procedure open: backup procedure, judicial recovery or bankruptcy.

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In case of backup

The AGS only guarantees the severance pay for employees made redundant for economic reasons during the observation period (6 months, renewable once) or during the month following the order of backup plan.

The AGS intervenes in a subsidiary capacity, i.e. when no other system allows the sums due to employees to be covered.

In the backup procedure, the company is not yet in cessation of payments. The judicial representative must then justify its inability to pay the wage claims on the funds held by the business. The AGS can dispute the reality of this inadequacy.

In the event of judicial reorganization

The AGS guarantees the following sums:

  • Amounts due to employees to the date of the judgment initiating the procedure for receivership: salaries, professional expenses, vacation pay. Wages are guaranteed for the last 60 days of work. Payments due to irregularly employed foreigner workers are also covered.
  • Receivables resulting from the breach of employment contracts (such as statutory severance pay) occurring during the observation period or within one month of the judgment that sets out the recovery or disposal plan.
  • Contributions due under the professional security contract (CSP). This contract organizes a return-to-employment pathway for the dismissed employee with reinforced and personalized support measures and periods of training and work.
  • Accompanying measures resulting from job protection plan (PES) determined by a majority collective agreement or by a document drawn up by the employer (for example, support for training, support for entrepreneurship)
  • Amounts due under profit-sharing, the participation of employees

FYI  

The AGS does not guarantee wages during the observation period if the judicial reorganization procedure is followed by a continuation plan. The care will be done only in case of conversion to bankruptcy, within a limit of 45 days in amount and duration.

After the judgment initiating the judicial reorganization, a phase called observation period begins during which the judicial representative (with the judicial administrator if there is one) makes a full assessment of the situation of the company. This period may not exceed 18 months and ends with a plan of judicial reorganization or an assignment of the company or a judicial liquidation.

In the event of bankruptcy

Liquidation following a judicial reorganization

Where liquidation is ordered as a result of judicial reorganization proceedings, the AGS guarantees payment of the following sums:

  • Amounts due to employees on the date of the judgment opening the liquidation proceedings: salaries, professional expenses, paid leave allowances. Wages are guaranteed up to a maximum of 45 days. Amounts due to irregularly employed foreigner workers shall also be covered and amounts due under employment contracts during the observation period
  • Claims arising from the breach of contracts (e.g. severance payments) occurring within 15 days of the judgment of liquidation (or within 21 days where job protection plan (PES) is developed).
  • Contributions due under the professional security contract (CSP). It organizes a return-to-employment pathway for the dismissed employee with reinforced and personalized support measures and periods of training and work.
  • Accompanying measures resulting from job protection plan (PSE) determined by a majority collective agreement or by a document drawn up by the employer (for example, support for training, support for entrepreneurship)
  • Amounts due under profit-sharing, the participation of employees
Judicial liquidation

Where the court directly pronounces bankruptcy, the AGS shall cover up to a maximum amount corresponding to one and a half months' salary, the following amounts:

  • Amounts due to employees : salaries, professional expenses, vacation pay. They are guaranteed up to a maximum amount corresponding to one and a half months' salary.
  • Claims arising from breach of contract (e.g. severance payments) occurring within 15 days of the judgment of liquidation (or within 21 days where job protection plan (PES) is developed). When there is a temporary continuation of the activity that is decided by the court, the time limit is 15 days (or 21 days when job protection plan (PES) is developed) following the end of the activity.
  • Contributions due under the professional security contract (CSP). It organizes a return-to-employment pathway for the dismissed employee with reinforced and personalized support measures and periods of training and work.
  • Accompanying measures resulting from a job protection plan (PES) determined by a majority collective agreement or by a document drawn up by the employer (for example, support for training, support for entrepreneurship)
  • Amounts due under profit-sharing, the participation of employees

Warning  

To benefit from the AGS guarantee following the bankruptcy, the judicial representative must meet deadlines for dismissing employees. This period is 15 days after the judgment opening the judicial liquidation or 21 days in the case of a job protection plan (PSE).

The guarantee of payment differs according to the situation of the company:

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In the event of a safeguard or recovery procedure

The guarantee of payment of wages is limited to one ceiling fixed according to the length of the employment contract on the day on which the collective proceedings were opened.

Tableau - Maximum guaranteed amounts of wages according to the length of the contract

Seniority of the contract at the date of the opening of the procedure

Maximum amount

Contract concluded more than 2 years before

€96,120

Contract concluded between 2 years and 6 months before

€80,100

Contract concluded less than 6 months before

€64,080

In the event of bankruptcy

In the event of bankruptcy, the wage guarantee shall be limited to the following amounts:

  • €12,015 for 1.5 months' salary
  • €8,010 for 1 month's salary.

THEAGS: titleContent paid to judicial representative the sums shown on the statement of wage claims within the following deadlines:

  • 5 days from the receipt of the statement of claims (e.g. for wages and paid leave allowances due to the employee)
  • 8 days from the receipt of the statement of claims (e.g. for accompanying measures resulting from a job protection plan),

The judicial representative reverse immediately the amounts he received from employees by check or transfer.

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