The Quarters or Points You Are Missing, and What Each One Is Actually Worth

In France, a quarter is a threshold of pay, not a period of time

The word misleads everyone once. Article R351-9 of the Code de la sécurité sociale credits as many quarters as the year's contributory earnings represent multiples of 150 hours at the hourly minimum wage in force on 1 January of that year, with a maximum of four per calendar year. With the hourly SMIC set at EUR 12.02 from 1 January 2026 by decree 2025-1228 of 17 December 2025, that is EUR 1,803 of gross contributory pay for one quarter and EUR 7,212 for four. Nothing in that rule looks at the calendar. A single well-paid month in March can validate four quarters for the whole year, and a year of very part-time work spread across twelve months can validate one, or none.

The practical consequences run in both directions. Someone with a short, well-paid contract each year builds a full career without working full time. Someone with a long, thinly paid one loses quarters despite never being out of work — and the loss is silent, because nothing on a payslip announces it. This is also why the cap matters: no amount of extra earnings buys a fifth quarter in a year, so a very high salary in one year cannot compensate for a year with none. Careers built of intermittent, low-paid work are the ones that arrive at retirement age with a gap nobody flagged.

How many you need — and why any table written before 2026 is wrong

The 2023 reform set out a schedule that raised both the legal age and the required duration, generation by generation. The 2026 social security financing law, adopted on 30 December 2025, froze that ramp-up. Article L161-17-3 in its version in force since 31 December 2025 now requires 167 quarters for those born between 1958 and 1960, 168 for those born between 1 January and 31 August 1961, 169 for those born between 1 September 1961 and 1962, 170 for those born from 1963 to 31 March 1965, 171 for those born between 1 April and 31 December 1965, and 172 for those born from 1 January 1966. Those figures apply to pensions taking effect from 1 September 2026.

The legal age moved with it. Article L161-17-2, also in its version in force since 31 December 2025, sets 64 years for those born from 1 January 1969, and below that a graduated scale: 62 years and 3 months for those born between September and December 1961, 62 years and 6 months for 1962, 62 years and 9 months for the generations from 1963 to the first quarter of 1965, 63 years for those born between April and December 1965, then 63 years and 3 months, 6 months and 9 months for 1966, 1967 and 1968. Two consequences follow. Anyone planning against a figure they read in 2024 is planning against a repealed schedule. And the freeze is written into the code rather than announced as policy, which means the way to check your own position is to read the article for your birth date rather than a summary of the reform.

One missing quarter is charged twice, and the two charges are not equal

The base pension is the average of the best years' salaries, multiplied by a rate, multiplied by a proration. The full rate is 50%, and Article R351-27 applies a reduction coefficient of 1.25% for each quarter retained — retained meaning the smaller of the number of quarters between the pension's start and the age at which the full rate is automatic, and the number of quarters still missing from the required duration, which is the comparison that keeps the reduction bounded. Independently of that, the pension is multiplied by the ratio of quarters actually obtained to quarters required. Almost every explanation names one of these and stops, which is why the loss people expect is roughly half the loss they get.

Computed on a concrete case: an average salary of EUR 30,000 and 172 quarters required. A full career gives 50% of EUR 30,000, prorated by 172 over 172, so EUR 15,000 a year. Four quarters short gives a rate of 47.5% and a proration of 168 over 172, so EUR 13,918.60 — EUR 1,081.40 less, a cut of 7.21% for one missing year of work. Recovering one of those four quarters is worth EUR 267.08 a year, and the split is instructive: EUR 183.14 comes from the improved rate and EUR 83.94 from the improved proration. The rate effect is the larger of the two, which is why the buy-back options that only restore the rate are cheaper than the ones that restore both.

The complementary scheme runs on points, and its advertised yield is not the one you get

For a private-sector employee in France, the base scheme is only part of the pension. The complementary scheme buys points: contributions are computed on a rate of 6.20% on the band of pay up to the social security ceiling and 17% on the band between one and eight ceilings, and points are obtained by dividing that amount by the purchase price of a point — the salaire de référence, published by Agirc-Arrco at EUR 20.1877 since 1 November 2024. The pension is then the number of points times the service value, held unchanged at EUR 1.4386 at 1 November 2025 by Agirc-Arrco circular 2025-15DT. Divide one by the other and the scheme's headline yield is 7.13%.

That figure is not what your money earns, because your money is not what buys the points. The scheme applies a calling rate of 127%: the contribution actually collected is 127% of the amount that generates points, so 7.87% of band-one pay rather than 6.20%, and 21.59% of band-two pay rather than 17%. The extra 27% funds the scheme's balance and generates nothing. Computed: EUR 1,000 of band-one salary produces 3.07 points, which pay EUR 4.42 a year, against EUR 78.70 actually paid in contributions — a yield of 5.61% on money paid, not 7.13%, and 17.8 years of pension to recover the contribution in nominal terms. Separately, note that the temporary 10% reduction known as the coefficient de solidarité was abolished by the national inter-professional agreement of 5 October 2023: it no longer applies to pensions taking effect from 1 December 2023, and it was lifted from 1 April 2024 for those already subject to it.

Germany: one point is one year at the average wage, and it prices in one step

German pension arithmetic is unusually transparent. Earning exactly the national average wage for a year gives one Entgeltpunkt; earning half gives half a point; earning double gives two, up to the contribution ceiling. The provisional average wage for 2026 is EUR 51,944 and the ceiling in the general pension insurance is EUR 101,400 a year, both set by the 2026 social insurance parameters regulation, so the most anyone can earn in a single year is 1.95 points. The monthly pension is then points times the aktueller Rentenwert, which rose by 4.24% to EUR 42.52 on 1 July 2026, times an access factor and a pension-type factor that are both 1 for a standard old-age pension taken at the standard age.

That makes a point easy to price on both sides. On the benefit side, one point pays EUR 42.52 a month, EUR 510.24 a year, indexed each 1 July. On the cost side, the contribution rate for 2026 is 18.6%, unchanged, so one point of average earnings costs EUR 9,661.58 in total contributions, half from the employee and half from the employer. Divide: 18.9 years of pension to get the whole contribution back in nominal terms, or 9.5 years to get back the employee's own half. Forty points give EUR 1,700.80 a month at the current point value and forty-five give EUR 1,913.40. Taking the pension two years early cuts the access factor by 0.3% per month, so 24 months early multiplies by 0.928 and turns those forty points into EUR 1,578.34 — EUR 122.46 a month less, permanently.

Reading your own statement, in the right order

Start with the count, not the amount. In France, look at the number of quarters recorded per year and find the years with fewer than four — study years, an unpaid internship, a period abroad, a spell of very part-time work, a first job that started in September. Each of those is a gap you can price with the arithmetic above. In Germany, the equivalent first look is the number of Entgeltpunkte per year and the years showing none: school and university periods after a certain age, gaps between jobs, time abroad. Both administrations let you request a formal record, and both records are correctable — but only if you produce the evidence, and payslips from thirty years ago are easier to find at fifty than at sixty-five.

One last caution about comparing the two systems. A French quarter and a German point are not the same kind of object: the quarter is a duration counter that gates the rate, while the point is a value counter that is the pension. A French career can be complete on quarters and still produce a small pension if the average salary is low; a German career cannot, because the points and the amount are the same number. Anyone with a career split across both countries needs both statements, and the European coordination rules aggregate periods for entitlement while each country pays its own share on its own rules — which is the correct mental model and not, as it is often described, a single merged pension.

Frequently asked questions

I worked all year but part-time. Why do I have only two quarters?

Because the rule counts money, not months. Article R351-9 credits one quarter per multiple of 150 times the hourly minimum wage in force on 1 January of the year — EUR 1,803 in 2026 — so contributory earnings of about EUR 4,000 across twelve months credit two quarters, not four. There is no partial quarter: the fourth threshold is either reached or not. If you are close to a threshold late in the year, additional contributory pay before 31 December can be worth a whole quarter, and that is a rare case where a small December bonus has a measurable effect on a pension forty years away.

Did the 2023 French reform get cancelled?

No — its ramp-up was frozen, which is a different thing and produces a different table. The 2026 social security financing law of 30 December 2025 did not repeal the reform; it halted the generation-by-generation increase for a period. The result is visible in the code itself: Article L161-17-3 now runs 170 quarters for the generations from 1963 to the first quarter of 1965 and 171 for those born from April to December 1965, where the 2023 schedule would have put them higher, and Article L161-17-2 holds the legal age at 62 years and 9 months for that same 1963-to-early-1965 band. The 64-year figure still stands for those born from 1 January 1969. Check the article for your birth date rather than a headline about the reform, in either direction.

Is the Agirc-Arrco malus still applied?

No. The temporary 10% reduction known as the coefficient de solidarité, which applied for three years to people who took their pension at the full rate without deferring by a year, was abolished by the national inter-professional agreement of 5 October 2023. Pensions taking effect from 1 December 2023 are paid without it, and those already reduced had the reduction lifted from 1 April 2024. Any calculation or article that still deducts it is describing a scheme that no longer exists — worth checking, because it is the kind of change that survives for years in secondary sources.

How many Entgeltpunkte does a decent German pension take?

Multiply and see. At the point value of EUR 42.52 in force from 1 July 2026, forty points give EUR 1,700.80 a month gross and forty-five give EUR 1,913.40. Forty points means forty years at exactly the average wage, which is a demanding standard: the provisional average for 2026 is EUR 51,944, and a career spent below it accumulates points below one per year. The ceiling works the other way: at EUR 101,400 a year, the most anyone can earn in 2026 is 1.95 points, so very high earners cannot buy their way past that. Health and long-term care contributions are then deducted from the gross pension, and part of it is taxable, so the net figure is meaningfully below the multiplication.

My statement shows fewer quarters or points than I expected. What can I do?

Correct it before you consider buying anything. Missing periods are usually a reporting gap rather than a real one: a first employer that closed, an apprenticeship, work abroad, a year of study that qualifies under a specific rule, military service. Both administrations have a correction procedure and both accept documentary evidence, most commonly payslips, employment certificates and tax records. Do this well before retirement, because the documents get harder to obtain every year and because it changes the answer to every other question — there is no point pricing a buy-back for a quarter you already earned and were never credited.