Letter from the table: The first hire should not feel like a leap in the dark

To the Team Council

My first attempt to hire someone began with a date in my calendar and ended with that date crossed out.

On 14 November 2025, I decided I could no longer manage the workload alone. I had a candidate in mind for a full-time role, 35 hours a week, at €2,100 gross per month. I could afford the salary if the work arrived when expected. What I could not work out confidently was the full monthly cost, or how many separate steps had to be completed before the person could start.

I called my accountant. The estimate came back at about €2,500 a month for wages and employer costs, before I counted the one-off setup work. That was an estimate for my situation, not a universal figure. The accountant also explained that I would need to arrange the employment contract and payroll, make the pre-hire declaration to URSSAF, organise the required health coverage, and then deal with monthly declarations and payments. The Déclaration préalable à l’embauche, or DPAE, must be sent before the employee starts work; it can be submitted within the eight days before the planned start. The monthly social declarations run through the DSN system.

Each item, taken separately, was understandable. Together they felt like a set of doors, each with its own form, deadline and consequence if I got something wrong. I did not know which parts I could complete myself, what the accountant would handle, or what still depended on me. I was not trying to avoid contributions. I was trying to know the bill before I promised a job.

I had planned for a 1 December start. On 24 November, I postponed it. The delay cost me €180 for the additional payroll setup and advice already needed, and I paid €55 for a monthly payroll service even though the start had moved. More importantly, I turned down a short piece of work worth about €1,800 before expenses because I could not responsibly promise the capacity to do it. That was not a dramatic collapse. It was a small business making the safe choice because the rules and total cost still felt hard to see.

We agreed a new start date of 5 January 2026. I sent the required information to my accountant, and the DPAE was submitted on 2 January, before the employee began. We arranged the collective health coverage and the payroll process. I also learned that in Paris the employer must reimburse at least half the cost of an employee’s public-transport subscription. None of this was a reason not to hire. It was simply another cost I needed to include in the calculation.

By the first payroll, I had a clearer number: roughly €2,500 a month for the gross wage, employer contributions and the regular employment-related costs I had included in my estimate, plus the ongoing payroll-service fee. The exact amount depends on the situation and the applicable contribution reductions. That qualification matters. What hurt was not that the final number was impossible to understand; it was that I could not get a reliable view of it early enough to make a confident decision.

I wanted to hire someone, not become an expert in assembling the price of a job from several different instructions.

I support the direction of TM-001: lower and simpler employment costs for a business’s first ten hires, phased social contributions, one-stop payroll registration and rules that are predictable before the employer makes a commitment. A clear first-hire route should show the expected employer cost alongside the proposed gross wage, identify which declarations are due and when, and explain what the employer must do versus what an authorised payroll provider can do. It should also make clear how costs change as a business moves from one employee to ten, rather than making each additional hire feel like starting again.

Phasing contributions would help with cash flow, but simplicity is not a substitute for fair contributions or proper protection for workers. I want the person I hire to be declared, paid correctly and covered by the protections that apply. I want the employer’s obligations gathered into a process a small business can follow without guesswork. Those aims belong together.

My experience is only one account, and the amount in my estimate will not match every employer’s. But the decision point is familiar: a small employer has work to offer, a person ready to do it, and a cost calculation that arrives with caveats and administrative steps attached. If the first ten hires are meant to be formal hires, the process should make the lawful choice the understandable choice.