The high cost of employing workers in France is due not so much to wages and benefits as it is to payroll taxes levied on employers. The entire French political class has long delighted in taxing labor to finance the country’s generous welfare provisions, thus avoiding excessively high taxation of individuals’ income and consumption – though that is about to come to an end as Hollande intends to slap a 75% tax on incomes above €1 million.
法国雇用工人成本高企与工资和福利关系并不大，与雇主承担的工资税关系更大。长期以来，整个法国政界都热衷于向劳动征税来为法国慷慨的福利融资，从而避免征收过高的所得税和消费税——尽管随着奥朗德计划对100万欧元以上收入部分征收75%的所得税，这一状况将走向终结。这是犯了对公司（“资方”）课税而放过普通人（“劳方”）的错误。