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Instead of being contributory (earnings based) or redistributive, the French pension system still displays powerful reward elements: pensions are not strictly based on contributions, but also on other factors that aim to compensate or reward different behaviors. This reward logic appears in the calculation of the earnings reference (an average of the 25 best years), but this paper aims to show that it is also present in the computation of the insurance period, as many quarters are validated for free. As a result, the French pension system redistributes from pensioners with incomplete careers to pensioners with complete careers, from outsiders to insiders. As the tax code can be undermined by special tax breaks, the pension system and the insurance period loopholes must be studied from the point of view of political economy and vested interests, if the goal is to make them more contributory.