OPINION. “We will not save Social Security by taxing those who finance it”, by Éric Ciotti, mayor of Nice and president of the UDR

This has become the economic leitmotif of the social-Macronist governments at the head of the country for fifteen years: to make up for the deficits, ask ever more of those who produce, hire and pay salaries.

The PLFSS for 2027 thus provided for 6.6 billion euros in additional levies on companies, by reducing reductions in employer contributions: 2.9 billion by extending the freezing of their scale despite the increases in the minimum wage, and 3.7 billion by integrating profit-sharing, participation and certain bonuses in their calculation. In short: companies would pay more contributions without their employees receiving a cent more.

However, this is already the French double evil: exorbitant labor costs for employers and insufficient pay slips for employees. And what is the government proposing? A new bloodletting! The Molière doctors who govern us are making the situation worse by claiming to want to improve it.

France has come a long way. According to the OECD, in 2025, taxes and contributions already absorbed 47.20 euros per 100 euros of labor costs for a single employee with an average salary, compared to 35.10 euros on average in the OECD. A gap between employer costs and net salary which slows down hiring and increases, while fueling the feeling of working a lot to earn too little.

For companies, each increase in costs reduces the room for maneuver: deferred hiring, a compromised increase, a postponed investment... And the first victims will be craftsmen and SMEs, whose cash flow is often already fragile! In the construction industry, which employs more than 1.2 million people and is going through a deep crisis, how can we restart construction and renovation by increasing the cost of those carrying out the work?

Worse, the government even intended to penalize companies that seek to better pay their employees: for years, we have encouraged them to share their results through profit-sharing and participation, without compromising the financial flexibility of small structures. And the State would like to make these devices more expensive! What message do you send to SME owners who are hesitant to introduce them?

Straighten the books without weakening the real economy

Rejected by the National Assembly on October 23, the PLFSS was not adopted as is. A UDR amendment had already excluded part of the provisions aimed at sharing value. But the government could still try to reintroduce them in the coming weeks.

Because the root of the problem lies elsewhere: the State demands ever more revenue without sustainably controlling its expenditure. In 2025, the latter represented 57.2% of in France, compared to 49.5% in the European Union, 47.2% in Denmark and 44.9% in the Netherlands.

Machine-translated from French