Let's start with a labour budget of $300,000 to hire a lead programmer or other critical person.
France: 41.35% of the gross salary is paid to the Government in payroll taxes, leaving $175,938 paid as income to the employee.
After income taxes, $90,167 is left for the employee to spend.
That employee then wants to spend their entire salary on flat-screen TVs? They have an effective spending power of $75,139 after 20% VAT.
Government taxes account for about 75% of this labour budget! As you can imagine, this creates a huge incentive for tax evasion.
The US, for the same original budget:
4.09% is paid as payroll taxes, leaving $287,717 as income.
After (Californian) income taxes, $178,773 is left for the employee to spend. 7.25% sales tax then gives $166,300 finally.
So, an extra $91,161 ends up with the American worker (much more if they are married to a zero-income spouse and move out of California). Sure, you have to pay things like property taxes, 401K contributions, health insurance in the US - but would those account for $91,161?
Europe needs to completely scrap its payroll taxes and replace them with income taxes. Employees should not have to pay anything merely for hiring an employee, as it places a disincentive on using labour. On a global level, it also makes France uncompetitive - American companies hiring globally will be much more attractive.
Sources: http://www.uhy.com/employers-now-pay-average-employment-cost... https://www.francetaxcalculator.com/?salary=149508