Public jobs in the active and sedentary categories: what difference?

Verified 01 January 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

One public employment in the active category is a job that has a special risk or exceptional fatigue.

The term “special risk” or “exceptional fatigue” should be understood to mean the inherent risks permanently to a job and leading to such premature wear and tear that it justifies early retirement.

This category of posts concerns civil servants in the three public services (State, territorial and hospital).

Jobs in the active category are classified by decree for the State civil service or Ministerial Order for the territorial and hospital public services.

Any job that is not pitch categorized as active is a sedentary job.

Since 1er in september 2023, the minimum retirement age is raised from 62 by 3 months per year to 64 in 2030.

If you are an active category civil servant and hold or have held one or more active category jobs, you can retiring earlier an official of a sedentary category in compensation for difficult working conditions.

Since 1er september 2023, in general, the minimum retirement age is increased from 57 by 3 months per year to 59 by 2030.

For certain so-called jobs super-assets and for air traffic controllers, the minimum retirement age is increased from 52 by 3 months per year to 54 years in 2030.

The so-called super-active jobs are:

  • Identifier of the forensic institute of the Paris police department
  • Underground Sewer System Officer
  • Prison supervision staff
  • Active Service Officer of the National Police

From 28 December 2023, services performed as a contractor in an active category job during the 10 years preceding your tenure in the State civil service are recorded as active services for the acquisition of the right to early departure.

If you are a sedentary class public servant, you are automatically entitled, regardless of the number of quarters of pension insurance, to a full-rate pension at age 67.

If you are an active category civil servant, you can automatically receive a full-rate pension, regardless of the number of quarters of pension insurance, earlier than a sedentary category civil servant.

The age of the automatic full rate for an official in the active category is the minimum retirement age increased by 3 years, i.e. 62 years or, for so-called super-active jobs, 57 years.

Active categorization may allow you to benefit from bonuses and a increase in your pension of retirement.

Subsidies are additional quarters free of charge, granted without contribution in return, when calculating your retirement pension.

Increases are increases in the amount of the pension.

Example :

An underground sewer system operator who has worked in the underground systems for at least 12 years, including six years in a row, is entitled to an improvement equal to half the time actually spent in these systems, up to a maximum of 10 years.