The homemakers’ retirement regime changes as of Tuesday, September 1, 2026. Two decrees, published in the Official Journal on July 31, 2026, streamline how pension entitlements are calculated and make it easier to take early retirement for those with long careers. The measures stem from the 2026 Social Security financing law, which suspended the 2023 pension reform.
The stated aim from the Ministry of Labour and Solidarity is clear: to close the gap between women and men. Today, women still receive pensions that are 28% lower than men's, according to DREES. The disparity stems from careers that are more frequently interrupted or reduced after the birth of a child. The policy applies to all eligible contributors, in Île-de-France as across the country.
Until now, the basic pension under the general scheme was calculated on the average of the 25 best earning years. This method penalized many women who reduced their work activity after having a child.
From now on, the average annual salary is calculated over the 24 best years for a mother who has had one child, and over the 23 best years for those who have had two or more children. By neutralizing one or two lower-income years, this change would benefit more than half of women, according to the government, with an estimated pension rise of about 1% on average.
This marks the second change. Mothers can benefit from a increase in pension entitlement (MDA) of up to eight quarters per child (four for maternity or adoption, four for child-rearing).
Until now, these quarters did not count toward the credited period that unlocks eligibility for early retirement for long careers. Starting September 1, two of them will be counted as contributions. For a woman born in 1970, 172 quarters are needed for a full-rate pension: those who were just one or two quarters short will be able to retire earlier. The government estimates the measure affects about 13,000 women of that generation, or roughly 3%.
Be aware that only pensions taking effect from September 1, 2026 are affected. No revaluation is planned for women who are already retired.
The app is designed to run automatically. That said, we still recommend checking your career record on info-retraite.fr or with the Pension Insurance. The scheme remains more favorable in the private sector (up to eight quarters of MDA per child) than in the public sector, where only one of the two bonus quarters per child born after January 1, 2004 will be counted.
The project is far from over. Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou said on September 1 on franceinfo that he intends to revisit in the 2027 Social Security budget the 10% pension uplift granted to parents with at least three children.
This top-up, tied to the amount of the pension, currently benefits men more, since their retirement incomes are on average higher. The minister says he is drafting legislation to equalize these family rights for women and men, though he has yet to spell out the details or how it would affect mothers.
These tweaks move in the direction of better recognizing how parenting affects careers. They remain modest, however, in the face of a 28% pension gap that also stems from part-time work and fragmented careers. The full texts can be consulted on Legifrance and on service-public.fr.
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