French ‘millionaire’s tax’ gets constitutional go-ahead

[DFW]

23. Social surcharges of 25%?

We have two employees in France, and we pay a little over 50% on top of their gross pay to the government in "charges sociales," while our employees get a little less than 50% of their gross pay. So, if we pay our guys a salary of $80,000, they cost us about $120,000 each, of which they each get to keep about $39,000. In France, it goes to prop the bloated public sector. They do have good social coverage, but they have three administrators for every one they need. In case something should by accident work efficiently, they usually figure out some way to make it more cumbersome and complicated. If some guy makes a salary of a million euros (and not many do), then he costs his employer 1.55 million euros and takes home 340,000 euros, where the government takes 1,210,000 euros. 340,000 euros take home is nothing to sneeze at, but some who see government take over three times as much do say "what's wrong with this picture?"