Multi-company employee savings plan (PEI) for small businesses

Quick answer. A multi-company employee savings plan (PEI) is a pooled employee savings scheme: your small business joins a rulebook already built by a provider instead of negotiating its own agreement. You give employees a savings framework (with an optional employer match) without building a bespoke scheme. It is the simplest route for a small structure that wants to share value.

Many small-business owners believe employee savings are reserved for large companies, or that they require a heavy internal agreement and a works council. That is not the case. The real obstacle is not eligibility: it is the setup time and the readability of costs. The PEI addresses exactly that obstacle. What remains is knowing when it beats a standard company PEE, how to size the match, and what it truly costs.

A PEI is a company savings plan (PEE) opened to several companies, whose rulebook is pooled. Instead of building your own plan, you join an existing structure, usually offered by a bank, an insurer or a specialised account keeper. Its retirement counterpart, the multi-company collective retirement savings plan (often called PERECOI), follows the same pooling logic for long-term savings locked until retirement.

The principle is simple: the employee pays money into the plan (voluntary payments, profit-sharing or incentive bonuses), the employer may top it up with a match, and the sums are invested in funds, locked in principle for five years for the PEE/PEI and until retirement for the collective plan. In return for this lock-in, the savings benefit from a favourable social and tax framework, governed by the Labour Code and the Social Security Code.

For a small business, the appeal is twofold: a concrete retention tool, and a form of pay that is less burdened than a gross salary increase. Here too, the detail matters: everything depends on the amount matched and the social package that applies.

Both schemes offer the same tax and social framework. The difference lies in the setup mechanics and the degree of customisation.

Our take. For a small business with fewer than ten employees and no dedicated HR function, the PEI almost always wins on time. You avoid drafting an agreement, collecting signatures and the legal follow-up of the plan. In return, you accept a more standard framework. Conversely, as soon as you want to fine-tune the match by category or pick a precise fund range, the own PEE regains the edge. If you hesitate, first look at setting up a standard company PEE to gauge the effort gap.

The PEI rests on an agreement or rulebook already negotiated at the level of a branch, an employment area or a group of named companies. In practice, for a small firm, joining a provider's commercial offer is the most common case: the rulebook already exists, you simply adhere to it.

The legal setup terms depend on your company's configuration and on whether employee representative bodies exist.

1. You have a union delegate. Collective bargaining, through an agreement, remains the natural route.
2. You have a works council (CSE) but no union delegate. The plan may be adopted by agreement within the council.
3. You have neither a union delegate nor a works council. Under the rules in force in spring 2026, the draft plan may notably be established after ratification by a two-thirds majority of the staff. Setting up certain savings plans by unilateral employer decision is also referred to where the company has no representative bodies; this option, however, is subject to conditions specific to the PEI and should be validated scheme by scheme with your provider (the effective date of that regime remains to be confirmed against an official source).

The underestimated risk. Many owners join a PEI without properly formalising employee information and the chosen method of adoption. This is precisely what the authorities may review in the event of an audit: a compliant setup conditions the benefit of the favourable social treatment. It is better to keep written evidence of the adoption method (ratification, agreement or decision) and of the information provided to the team.

The match is the amount the employer adds to the employee's payments. It is what makes the PEI attractive. It is capped by two cumulative limits: a percentage of the employee's payment and a percentage of the annual social security ceiling (PASS), set at 48,060 euros for 2026.

In other words, the employer cannot match more than three times what the employee pays in, nor exceed the euro ceiling. An employee paying in 1,000 euros may therefore receive up to 3,000 euros of match, within the annual ceiling.

In practice. For a small business starting out, a reasonable match (for example one euro matched per euro paid, within a controlled annual envelope) is often enough to create the retention effect without inflating the wage bill. The goal is not to max out the ceiling in year one, but to set up a scheme that holds over time.

This is where the economic trade-off plays out. The match is not subject to standard social contributions, but it may be subject to the social package (forfait social).

The standard social package rate is 20%, set by Article L137-16 of the Social Security Code (Article L137-15 of the same code defines its base, that is, the sums liable to it). This rate is not automatic: companies with fewer than 50 employees benefit, under conditions, from an exemption from the social package on the match and on profit incentives, which radically changes the equation for a small firm.

Our take. For a small business with fewer than 50 employees, matching into a PEI is often one of the most efficient ways to transfer purchasing power to the team, because it escapes contributions and, in many cases, the social package. Compared with a standard, fully charged bonus, the cost gap for the company is significant. It is a lever to factor into the broader pay discussion, alongside meal vouchers or the mandatory company health cover.

Yes, subject to headcount thresholds. In companies employing at least one staff member (and generally up to 250), the business owner, their collaborating or partner spouse, and corporate officers can access the PEI on the same terms as employees. This point is too often ignored: the non-salaried director of a small structure can also build matched savings within a favourable framework.

This opens a genuine wealth-planning discussion, to be aligned with your overall pay strategy. Before setting the match level, it helps to weigh salary, dividends and employee savings against your real situation.

Networked or franchised small firms. Franchise networks are a natural fit for the PEI: a plan pooled across the network lets each outlet, however small, offer employee savings without running its own scheme. The multi-company mechanics are built for exactly this.

Company with a single employee. The PEI works from the first employee. It is an underrated recruitment and retention argument for structures looking to stand out against larger employers.

Crossing the 50-employee threshold. If your headcount grows and durably crosses 50 employees, the social-package exemption may be called into question under the threshold-freeze and crossing rules. This is a point to anticipate with your adviser, as it changes the net cost of the match.

• The PEI is a pooled employee savings plan: you join an existing rulebook instead of building your own, making it the fastest route for a small business.
• The employer match is capped at 8% of the PASS for a PEE/PEI (3,844.80 euros in 2026) and 16% of the PASS for a collective plan (7,689.60 euros), without exceeding 300% of the employee's payment.
• The standard social package is 20% (Article L137-16 of the Social Security Code), but firms with fewer than 50 employees are, under conditions, exempt on the match.
• With neither a union delegate nor a works council, the PEI may, under the rules in force in spring 2026, be established notably by ratification through a two-thirds majority of the staff.
• The owner and their collaborating spouse can benefit from the plan in structures employing at least one staff member.