Why TM-001 is becoming the Fair Hiring Cost Standard

TM-001 is a proposal to make the first ten formal hires more affordable and simpler for small employers. The evidence points to a real problem, but the proposal is still early: as of 5 October, it had passed two of the five pattern tests.

What happened

The OECD’s *Taxing Wages 2026* reports 2025 tax-wedge figures that offer a cross-country comparison of employment costs, while Reseated’s 5 October snapshot records the Team Council’s reports and progress on TM-001.

The OECD reports an average tax wedge of 35.1% across its member countries in 2025, with country figures ranging from 20.8% in New Zealand to 49.3% in Germany among the cases provided.
The ILO says MSMEs account for about 70% of employment worldwide and that about 80% of them operate in the informal economy.
As of 5 October, the Team Council had 111 members across 38 countries and 162 reports from 41 countries; TM-001 had passed two of the five pattern tests.

What it means for small businesses

A country-level tax-wedge figure is useful context, but it does not by itself show the actual cost of a particular small business’s first hire or payroll administration.

The Team Council’s proposed focus is specific: phase social contributions, simplify payroll registration through a one-stop process, and make rules predictable for a business’s first ten hires.

TM-001 is not an adopted standard or a settled policy prescription. Owners can help build the evidence by recording hiring costs and comparing the experience of formal employment across hire numbers and countries.