The recent legislative reform on value sharing marks a turning point for companies, aimed at reconciling work with capital, a sensitive subject in the context of the current social crisis and labour market recession. Law No. 2023-1107 of 29 November 2023, specified by the decrees of 29 June and 5 July 2024, introduces unprecedented obligations on an experimental basis for five years, while leaving companies some flexibility in the choice of schemes.
While no sanctions are yet in place, the desirability of adopting a flexible and appropriate framework will not last indefinitely. Anticipating and adapting one's remuneration policy now is strategic before a more rigid and less advantageous generalisation, but can also serve as a social shock absorber at a time of unprecedented social tensions.
In any case, companies, regardless of their workforce, are called upon to review their remuneration policy by integrating value sharing, a real lever for employee loyalty and attractiveness.
This article deciphers the implications of this reform for companies according to their size, insisting on the objectives to be achieved according to the goal pursued by the company manager.
1. The implementation of a value-sharing mechanism for companies with between 11 and 49 employees (VSEs and small businesses)
As of 1 January 2025, the law makes it mandatory for more than 170,000 companies1 to set up one of the following four schemes: voluntary profit-sharing scheme, mandatory profit-sharing scheme, employee savings plan (PEE or PERCO) or value-sharing bonus (PPV), by 2025.
This new obligation is subject to two conditions.
A staffing condition set at 11 employees
To check whether the company is eligible, it will be necessary to determine the annual workforce by calculating the average of the number of employees during each month of the previous calendar year. It is sufficient that the company has reached a workforce of 11 employees over the calendar year in 2024 to be concerned.
The company must not be subject to the obligation to set up legal participation, i.e. to have reached a workforce of 50 employees over five calendar years or to belong to an economic and social unit reaching 50 employees under the same conditions.
A condition linked to results
Companies that make a net tax profit of at least 1% of their turnover for 3 consecutive financial years will be subject to the obligation to set up a value-sharing mechanism.
To check whether the company is eligible in 2025, it will be necessary to take into account the net tax profit for the financial years 2022 to 2024.
If both conditions are met, companies will nevertheless be able to derogate from this obligation if they have set up an employee savings scheme (voluntary profit-sharing or mandatory profit-sharing) for the financial year in question.
It is an obligation of result and not of means, unlike companies with more than 50 employees. On the other hand, the company has a great deal of flexibility in the choice of the scheme, its amount and the method of implementation from the moment it is introduced during the financial year in question.
The companies concerned will therefore be able to choose one of the four schemes that meet different objectives in terms of wage policy and/or according to the economic and social context of the company. Employee savings tools will be designed to retain employees in the medium and long term and to encourage them to actively contribute to the company’s performance.
Voluntary Profit-sharing is the most popular tool for SMEs
Among employee savings tools, voluntary profit-sharing is by far the most popular scheme for SMEs because of its flexibility. However, for small companies with fewer than 50 employees, only 11.2% of them have a voluntary profit-sharing agreement2.
By nature optional, lasting from 1 to 5 years, it aims to collectively involve employees in the company's results through the payment of voluntary profit-sharing bonuses in the event of the achievement of predefined collective objectives, linked to the company's results or performance and necessarily based on financial, extra-financial, CSR or environmental criteria.
This scheme is particularly advantageous for companies with fewer than 250 employees, which are exempt from the social contribution (forfait social). Employees are not to be outdone, as they benefit from a preferential regime if the bonus is paid into a savings plan (income tax exemptions (PEE/PER/PERCO), exemptions from employee contributions (excluding CSG CRDS).
It should be noted that the Law of 29 November 2023 abolished the old mechanism consisting of granting companies reaching the threshold of liability to profit-sharing the possibility of deferring the implementation of this obligation for 3 years when they had a voluntary profit-sharing agreement.
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