What is a junior company?

A junior company is a non-profit and educational association in which a student, for a fee, performs missions for the benefit of private or public companies. The purpose of this type of structure is to better prepare the student for his or her professional integration. In this way, he puts into practice the knowledge acquired during his course.

Students or pupils are bound to the junior company by an agreement setting out the conditions for their collaboration.

Membership of the general social security scheme and contributions due

Up to now, students of junior companies have been formally affiliated to the general social security system solely on the basis of a ministerial decree of 20 June 1988. This is provided for in Article 14 of the Social Security Financing Act for 2023.

Junior companies are therefore now included in the Social Security Code. The purpose of this provision is to secure the social security of students and pupils working in these associations.

The persons concerned by this new provision are ‘pupils and students in higher education who are carrying out or participating in the carrying out, for remuneration, of studies of an educational nature within an association constituted exclusively for that purpose’.

The contributions due by the students concerned shall be calculated by mutual agreement between the association and the student on the basis of:

• a flat-rate basis of assessment calculated on the basis of the value of the SMIC in force at 1^er January of the year in question, for each study day paid by the association, or ;
• the total amount of the pupil’s or student’s remuneration.

The status of junior companies was therefore protected since they were not reclassified as employers.

These provisions shall apply to contributions and social contributions due in respect of periods running from 1^er January 2023.