Mandatory coverage of employees' public transport costs

Verified 04 August 2025 - Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

An employer must cover part of the public transport costs of its employees. This applies to subscription titles to public transport and to public bicycle rental services used by employees for commuting. This support is exempt from social security contributions.

Sheets dedicated to the optional coverage of employees' personal transport costs are available: on the sustainable mobility package (FMD) and on the support for fuel and power costs of electric, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen vehicles.

Beneficiaries

The assumption of public transport costs should benefit all employees of the company have public transport tickets.

The employer must take charge 50% the cost of the subscription tickets of its employees who use public transport.

Subscription titles supported are as follows:

  • Subscriptions multimodal to unlimited number of trips
  • Annual, monthly, weekly or tacit (automatic) renewal subscriptions to unlimited number of journeys issued by SNCF or other public transport companies
  • Monthly, weekly or tacit (automatic) renewal passes and subscriptions with a limited number of journeys issued by RATP, SNCF or other public transport companies
  • Subscriptions to a public bicycle rental service.

FYI  

Coverage concerns all public transport that the employee must take for the entire journey between his habitual residence and his place of work. That may therefore include several separate subscriptions, all of which must be supported.

Part-time employees

Part-time employees benefit of this support.

The care depends on the duration of their work:

  • If the duration is greater than or equal to 50% the legal duration of weekly or conventional work, the coverage of public transport costs must apply as for a full-time employee.
  • If the duration is less than 50% of the legal duration of weekly or conventional work, the employer's care must be proportional to the number of hours worked in relation to half of full-time working hours.

Example :

In a company where full-time work is 35 hours, an employee works 7 hours per week.

He works 20% full-time working time (7 hours), i.e 40% hours worked compared to half (here, 17.5 hours) of full-time working hours.

The employee must therefore benefit from 40% the amount of the public transport costs which he would have received if he had been full-time.

Coverage of public transport costs is at least equal to 50% the cost of the subscription tickets for the employee (for full-time employees).

The employer's coverage is based on the rates of 2e class.

The employee may request the payment of the ticket(s) enabling him/her to travel from home to his/her place of work in the shortest time.

When the ticket used corresponds to a journey greater than the shortest journey, the pick-up is carried out on the basis of the subscription that strictly allows to make the shortest trip.

Coverage of public transport costs may be greater than 50% the cost of the subscription vouchers to the employee, at the decision of the employer (e.g as part of its CSR policy).

Implementation

Coverage of public transport costs is mandatory.

The employer must reimburse the securities purchased by the employees no later than the end of the month following the month for which they were validated.

Titles with an annual validity period are supported monthly during the period of use.

Example :

For a paid subscription annually by the employee in the amount of €1,200, the employer must at least reimburse monthly €50. In total over the year, the refund will be €600.

Please note

The employer may refuse to take charge if the employee already receives allowances representative of expenses for his travel between his residence and his place of work in an amount equal to or greater than 50% public transport costs.

Formalities

The employee must provide or present its subscription title concerned by the assumption of public transport costs.

To be supported, the title must allow identification of the holder and be valid.

For one-time subscription titles public bicycle rental service, a attestation on honor the employee is sufficient to entitle the beneficiary to cover the subscription costs when the subscription ticket does not include the first and last name of the beneficiary.

The amount of the transport costs must be mentioned on the pay slip.

FYI  

For employees temporary workers, a attestation on honor addressed to the temporary work company is sufficient to entitle the applicant to cover the costs of a public passenger transport service or a public bicycle rental service.

Possibility of collective agreement

One collective agreement (company, inter-company or branch agreement) may make certain changes to the coverage of public transport costs. It may cover the following:

  • The proof of subscription required to benefit from the support: subscription title, certificate on honor, etc.
  • The amount of reimbursement of transport costs (greater than or equal to 50%)
  • Reimbursement deadlines. These deadlines must be at the latest: the end of the month following the month for which the securities were validated.

In the absence of a collective agreement, the employer decides on the amount of the support public transport costs. This must be at least equal to 50% the cost of the subscription tickets for the employee.

FYI  

In the event of a change in the reimbursement of public transport costs, the employer shall notify employees at least one month before the date set for the change.

Coverage of public transport costs is exempt from social security contributions until 75% the cost of the subscription tickets for the employee, without a ceiling.

Please note

For the employee who benefits from it, the coverage of public transport costs is exempt from income tax until 75% the cost of the subscription tickets for the employee, without a ceiling.

The support of tickets for public transport or bike rental is cumulative with the sustainable mobility package.

If the exemption from social security contributions for the payment of public transport or bicycle rental tickets exceeds €900 per year for an employee, the sustainable mobility package will be subject to social contributions.

Otherwise, the exemption from social security contributions for the 2 employees is capped at €900.

Since 2025, in the event of a combination between the payment of public transport or bicycle rental tickets and the fuel premiumHowever, the fuel premium is not exempt from social security contributions.

FYI  

If the cost of public transport subscriptions exceeds €900 per year per employee, the sustainable mobility package and the fuel premium are not exempt from social security contributions.

Example :

An employee benefits from the 50% the amount of his public transport subscription for €710 and the sustainable mobility package up to €330, of which €50 fuel premium.

It shall be exempt from social security contributions to a maximum of €900.

Support for sound public transport subscription (€710) is completely exempt from social security contributions.

The sustainable mobility package is exempt from social security contributions in the amount of €190 (for €900 - €710 = €190).

The employer will have to pay social contributions on the entire fuel premium (either €50), since it is not exempt from social security contributions because of the combination with the reimbursement of the employee's public transport costs.

It will also pay social contributions on €90 (€330 - €190 - €50 = €90) the sustainable mobility package (excluding fuel premium) which are not exempt.

In the absence of the implementation of the coverage of public transport costs, the employer risks penalty. This is a fine of €750 (natural person) or €3,750 (legal person).

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