Constructed figure, assumptions listed

The question always comes up in the same order. The need is identified, the budget is tight, and someone proposes bringing in a contractor to start.

That is often the right answer. It still helps to know up to what volume.

The rate converted into days

Days billed in the yearCost of the engagement
20€11,500
50€28,750
100€57,500
137€78,775
150€86,250
200€115,000

The cost of an employee paid at the market median, 55,000 euros gross, comes to 78,546 euros once the employer coefficient is applied. The tipping point sits at 137 days billed.

Below that volume, the engagement is cheaper and commits you to nothing. Above it, hiring becomes the economical option, provided the need lasts at least three years.

Why the threshold moves, and in which direction

The threshold depends on three variables, and only one is negotiable.

The salary level. At 48,000 euros gross, the threshold drops to 119 days. At 65,000, it rises to 161. A senior position justifies a hire faster, mechanically.

The daily rate. At 500 euros, the threshold for an employee at 55,000 euros gross rises to 157 days. At 650, it falls to 121. It is the only one of the three variables you can move through negotiation.

The workplace accident rate and supplementary health cover, absent from the figures above, push the threshold up by a few days. They favour the engagement.

What you will be told, and what to answer

“A contractor only costs what you give them.” True, and it is their main appeal: the spend stops the day the need stops. What the reasoning forgets is the replacement cost each time someone leaves, and the fact that knowledge of your system leaves with them, unless it was written down.

“575 euros is too high, the market is at 450.” Maybe in your area, and that is worth checking locally. The published figure is a declaration made on a platform by people looking for assignments there. Use it as an order of magnitude, never as a negotiation reference.

“Let’s take the contractor full time, it will be simpler.” A full-time contractor is about 220 days billed, that is 126,500 euros. You have then passed the threshold by 60 %, and you are paying a flexibility premium you are not using.

“We have no one to manage an employee on this subject.” That is the most serious of the four arguments, and a spreadsheet does not settle it. A company with no one to manage a technical skill pays a salary and gets a poorly supported contractor, which is the worst of both worlds.

To check for yourself, in twenty minutes

The real volume of the need, in days. Take the last six months of requests on this subject and count the days actually spent. Most needs believed to be permanent run around 60 to 90 days a year.

The predictable duration of the need. Three years is the threshold beyond which hiring is justified. Below it, you are financing a recruitment, an onboarding and a separation for a need that will have disappeared.

Your last services invoice. Divide the annual amount by the daily rate. You get the number of days actually purchased, almost always lower than everyone believes.

The tapering rate. Systematically ask for a discount beyond 40 days. It is the easiest concession to obtain in this market, and no one asks for it.

The sentence to remember

A daily rate is not expensive. It becomes expensive starting on day 137.

Open in a spreadsheet · The tipping point, as a spreadsheet (775 bytes)

Sources

Last reviewed: 19 August 2026

Figures to review before 19 August 2027