How Much Do Hospital Doctors Earn in France? 2026 Praticien Hospitalier Salary Scale
Hospital doctors employed in France under the Praticien Hospitalier (PH) status have a published gross annual salary scale ranging from €55,607.79 to €112,416.56, depending on seniority and salary step.
The current PH remuneration framework uses 13 salary steps, or échelons, with pay increasing as a physician progresses through the public hospital career structure. The official scale is set out in the national remuneration order for medical staff working in public health establishments.
For physicians comparing hospital compensation in France, the most important point is that these figures represent gross hospital emoluments before additional allowances and payments.
They are therefore a base remuneration benchmark rather than a complete measure of total annual earnings.
What is the salary for a Praticien Hospitalier in France?
The official PH salary scale runs from:
€55,607.79 gross per year at échelon 1
to:
€112,416.56 gross per year at échelon 13.
The full published scale is:
PH salary step | Gross annual hospital emoluments |
Échelon 1 | €55,607.79 |
Échelon 2 | €58,082.41 |
Échelon 3 | €62,148.07 |
Échelon 4 | €66,567.09 |
Échelon 5 | €68,688.21 |
Échelon 6 | €71,162.83 |
Échelon 7 | €76,465.74 |
Échelon 8 | €79,647.54 |
Échelon 9 | €90,549.14 |
Échelon 10 | €94,557.64 |
Échelon 11 | €99,810.26 |
Échelon 12 | €105,062.89 |
Échelon 13 | €112,416.56 |
These amounts are the official annual gross hospital emoluments for PHs.
What does this mean in monthly terms?
On a simple annual ÷12 basis, the scale equates approximately to:
€4,634 per month at échelon 1
€9,368 per month at échelon 13
These monthly figures are useful for comparison, but the official French source publishes the PH scale as annual gross remuneration, not as a monthly salary table.
How much does experience affect PH pay?
A great deal.
Progression from the first to the final PH step increases published annual gross hospital remuneration from:
€55,607.79
to:
€112,416.56
That is a difference of more than €56,800 per year across the career scale.
For hospital doctors in France, seniority and progression through the échelons are therefore central to understanding base remuneration.
The relevant question is not simply:
“What does a hospital doctor earn in France?”
It is also:
“Which PH échelon applies to my current career stage?”
Is this the total amount a Praticien Hospitalier earns?
Not necessarily.
The published PH scale represents hospital emoluments, but public-hospital doctors can also qualify for additional payments depending on their role and working arrangements.
One of the most important is the:
Indemnité d'engagement de service public exclusif
The official remuneration order sets this allowance at:
€1,010 per month
for eligible physicians who commit to exclusive public service.
On a 12-month basis, that could add:
€12,120 gross per year
to a physician's remuneration where the conditions are met.
This means that a PH on the standard salary scale may receive significantly more than the base hospital emoluments alone.
What is the prime d'exercice territorial?
The official remuneration framework also provides a prime d'exercice territorial for eligible doctors working across sites.
The monthly gross amounts are:
€250 for one half-day per week outside the principal site
€450 for more than one and up to three half-days
€700 for more than three and up to four half-days
€1,000 for four half-days across at least two additional sites, or more than four half-days
These payments sit on top of the core PH remuneration where the relevant conditions are met.
Are on-call and night duties included in the PH salary scale?
No.
The core salary scale should not be treated as a measure of all compensation associated with hospital work.
Hospital physicians may receive additional remuneration for activities such as:
permanence des soins;
nights;
weekends;
public holidays;
additional working time; and
specific organisational responsibilities.
These components can materially increase annual gross income beyond the published PH scale.
For compensation comparisons, that distinction is crucial.
A French PH base salary should not be directly compared with another country's physician-income survey if that survey includes overtime, on-call work, private activity or other additional earnings.
Does specialty affect the PH salary scale?
The PH scale itself is not specialty-specific.
A cardiologist, neurologist, oncologist, radiologist or other specialist working under PH status is paid according to the relevant PH career scale rather than a separate nationally published salary table for each specialty.
The data should therefore be interpreted as a benchmark for:
public-hospital specialist physicians employed as Praticiens Hospitaliers
rather than as evidence of what an individual specialty earns.
That distinction matters for specialty-led compensation analysis.
If we want to answer:
“What do cardiologists earn in France?”
we need cardiology-specific evidence.
The PH scale instead answers:
“What is the base public-hospital remuneration structure for specialist doctors employed under PH status in France?”
How does this differ from private-practice physician income?
It is a completely different type of compensation evidence.
The PH scale applies to physicians employed within the public hospital system.
Private-practice doctors may derive income from:
consultations;
procedures;
reimbursement tariffs;
private billing arrangements; and
practice activity.
Those figures should not be mixed with the PH salary scale.
For example, Ameli consultation tariffs are reimbursement amounts per consultation or act, whereas the PH scale is employment remuneration.
Likewise, CARMF income data reflects independent-practice professional income rather than public-hospital salary.
Each dataset answers a different question.
What should hospital doctors in France take from the 2026 salary data?
For Praticiens Hospitaliers, the current official remuneration framework provides a clear base-pay benchmark.
Gross annual hospital emoluments range from:
€55,607.79 at échelon 1
to:
€112,416.56 at échelon 13.
Eligible physicians may then receive additional compensation such as:
€1,010 per month for the exclusive public-service commitment allowance
and up to:
€1,000 per month in territorial-practice allowance
depending on eligibility and working arrangements.
The most useful question for an individual hospital doctor is therefore not simply:
“What is the salary of a hospital doctor in France?”
It is:
“Which PH échelon applies to me, and which allowances and additional payments sit on top of my base hospital remuneration?”
That provides a much more accurate picture of physician compensation within the French public hospital system.
Source: Official French public-hospital medical remuneration scale under the Arrêté du 29 juin 2023 modifying the Arrêté du 8 juillet 2022, Annex II — Praticiens Hospitaliers. The official scale remains published by Légifrance.
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