The Provisional Government issues Ordonnance n°45-2250, establishing an organization of social security to protect workers and families against major social risks (illness, maternity, workplace injury, old age, and family burdens), laying the institutional foundation of the postwar system.
Ordonnance n°45-2454 sets the social insurance regime applicable to insured persons in non-agricultural professions, helping operationalize coverage rules alongside the October 4, 1945 organizational ordinance.
A law of 22 May 1946 is widely cited as proclaiming the aim of extending Social Security protection to all French residents, emblematic of postwar universalizing ambitions (even as a fully unified single scheme was not realized in practice).
The Preamble to the 27 October 1946 Constitution affirms major social rights—such as protection of health, material security, rest, and leisure—strengthening the normative basis for postwar welfare-state expansion.
The law of 11 February 1950 creates the salaire minimum interprofessionnel garanti (SMIG), a wage floor intended to limit extreme low pay and support purchasing power—an important complement to social protection during consolidation.
The law of 12 July 1966 creates a distinct compulsory health and maternity insurance framework for non-salaried, non-agricultural workers (independent professions), extending coverage while maintaining separate institutional arrangements from the general scheme.
The Jeanneney ordinances (notably Ordonnance n°67-706) reorganize the general scheme by separating key functions/risks and creating national-level structures (CNAM, CNAF, CNAV and ACOSS), a major step in administrative and financial consolidation.
During the May–June 1968 social crisis, the Grenelle negotiations culminate in a project protocol (often referred to as the “Accords de Grenelle”) that includes a 35% increase in the SMIG, illustrating how labor conflict shaped welfare-state and wage policy in the late 1960s.
The law of 2 January 1970 reforms the minimum wage by replacing the SMIG with the SMIC (salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance), aligning minimum-wage progression with inflation and broader wage growth—an important redistributive lever alongside social security.
The 31 December 1970 hospital reform law restructures the organization of hospitals and the public hospital service, shaping how health care delivery interfaces with Social Security financing and coverage in the late postwar period.
On the 80th anniversary of French Social Security, the Bibliothèque nationale de France features the founding 4 and 19 October 1945 ordinances in a public presentation—reflecting their enduring institutional significance in the welfare-state settlement.
Postwar French Social Security Consolidation (1945–1974)
