During World War II, he was active in the French Resistance, specifically with the MLN.

[2] He was a member of Georges Bidault's National Liberation Movement,[3] and distributed a manifesto about trade unionism in December 1940.

[6] He was Minister of Labour in De Gaulle, Debré and Pompidou governments from 1958 to 1962.

With the other MRP ministers, he resigned in protest after De Gaulle's press conference about European integration in May 1962.

A trade unionist and an adept of social harmony, Paul Bacon was one of the major figures who built French social security and was the father of the Interprofessional Guaranteed Minimum Wage (salaire minimum interprofessionnel garanti, or SMIG).