A nursing assistant employed in a public hospital, 62 years old, with a full career: her net pension often hovers around 1,200 to 1,300 euros per month. The figure is surprising when faced with thirty-five years of personal care, nighttime wake-ups, and end-of-life patients. Understanding this amount requires dismantling the calculation mechanism specific to the public hospital service, and especially measuring the recent impact of the Ségur supplement on the pension.
The Ségur supplement in the calculation of the CNRACL pension
There is a lot of talk about the Ségur de la santé for salaries. There is less discussion about retirement, even though that is where the change is most tangible in the long term.
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The indexed treatment supplement (CTI), set at 49 index points or 241.22 euros gross per month in 2026, is now included in the calculation base for the basic pension through a mechanism called SP-CTI. Specifically, for a nursing assistant retiring with a full career, this supplement can represent up to 75% of the gross CTI, which is about 181 euros gross per month in addition to the standard pension.
This is a real lever. Before the Ségur, the basic pension relied solely on the indexed treatment excluding bonuses. This resulted in very low pensions despite years of service with irregular hours. The CTI partially corrects this imbalance, but it does not make up for everything.
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Night, Sunday, and special duty bonuses remain outside the basic calculation. They fall under the RAFP, the additional retirement plan for public service, whose amounts remain modest.
To know precisely how much a nursing assistant receives in retirement, one must therefore add three components: the basic CNRACL pension, the Ségur SP-CTI, and the RAFP.
Revaluation of nursing assistant pensions on January 1, 2026
Full-time nursing assistants under the CNRACL benefited from a 0.9% revaluation on January 1, 2026 for their basic pension. The RAFP was revalued by 1.4% on the same date.
On the ground, 0.9% on a net pension of 1,250 euros represents about ten euros per month. Let’s not kid ourselves: in the face of inflation in previous years, the recovery remains partial. Feedback on this point varies depending on each individual’s situation, particularly based on the number of validated quarters and the duration spent in active category.
Active category and retirement age
The distinction between active category and sedentary category changes everything. A nursing assistant classified in active category (a job recognized as presenting a particular risk or exceptional fatigue) can retire earlier than the legal age, provided they have accumulated at least 17 years of service in this category.
With 17 years of active service, the age for opening rights is 59. Without these 17 years, one falls back on the common law rules. The 2023 reform has also gradually raised the age limits, which pushes many nursing assistants to extend their activity to avoid a reduction in their pension.
Nursing assistant pension in the private sector: a different calculation
Not all nursing assistants are civil servants. In 2018, there were about 60,000 employed nursing assistants in the private sector, compared to 227,000 civil servants in the public hospital service in 2019 (Drees figures). The difference in regime has a direct impact on the pension.
In the private sector, retirement is calculated based on the 25 best years of gross salary, and not on the last six months of indexed treatment as in the public sector. The basic regime is that of Social Security, supplemented by Agirc-Arrco.
- The calculation over 25 years smooths out periods of low salary, which can disadvantage nursing assistants who started with very low pay at the beginning of their careers.
- Bonuses and overtime are included in the calculation base in the private sector, unlike in the public sector where only the indexed treatment (and now the CTI) counts for the basic pension.
- The Agirc-Arrco complementary pension depends on the number of points accumulated, directly linked to the level of contributions from the employer and the employee.
In the end, a nursing assistant in the private sector often receives a total pension comparable to, or even slightly lower than that of a hospital civil servant with an equivalent career. The difference mainly lies in the consideration of bonuses in the calculation.
Concrete levers to improve a nursing assistant’s pension
Waiting until the last year before retirement to take an interest in one’s pension means losing maneuvering room. Several actions can still influence the final amount.
- Check one’s CNRACL or Social Security career statement to identify missing or incorrectly recorded quarters. Errors are common, particularly regarding part-time periods or maternity leave.
- Extend a few quarters beyond the age of opening rights to eliminate any potential reduction and obtain an increase.
- Ensure that the Ségur CTI is properly integrated into the calculation by requesting an updated simulation from the CNRACL.
- Evaluate the interest of a progressive retirement, now extended to the public service, which allows reducing working hours while starting to receive a portion of the pension.
Progressive retirement, in particular, deserves attention. It allows transitioning to 80% or 60% activity while partially liquidating one’s rights. For a nursing assistant at the end of their career, physically worn down by the demands of the job, it is an option that can change the last two or three years of work.
The amount of a nursing assistant’s pension remains marked by a paradox: a physically and emotionally demanding job, a pension that struggles to exceed the median level of French pensions. The Ségur CTI has provided a real but limited correction. Vigilance over one’s career statement and the use of end-of-activity measures remain the best tools to gain a few extra euros per month.