The most serious structural flaws concern high payroll taxes and labor-market regulation, which make it difficult – or at least prohibitively expensive – for firms to reduce their workforce when business conditions worsen. The OECD reports that in 2010, France’s “tax wedge” (income taxes plus employee and employer social-security contributions minus cash transfers as a percentage of total labor costs) was at least 13 percentage points above the OECD average at every level of household income.
最严重的结构性缺陷在于高工资税和劳动力市场管制，这使得企业难以在商业景气度恶化时裁员（或者说裁员的成本太高）。经合组织的报告显示，2010年，法国的“税楔”（即所得税加上雇员和雇主的社会保障支出再减去现金转移支付占总劳动成本的百分比）在所有水平的家庭收入上都要高出经合组织平均水平至少13个百分点。