Constructed figure, assumptions listed

The need has been identified for eight months. Everyone agrees it exists, no one agrees on how to cover it, and it keeps being handled by the person with the least reason to deal with it.

Three branches exist. The discussion only ever compares two of them.

The cost of a day, on both sides

A position paid at the market median costs 78,546 euros a year once the employer coefficient is applied. Spread over 218 working days, that’s 360 euros a day.

A contractor at the reference rate costs 575 euros a day, that is 60 % more.

The gap seems to close the debate. It doesn’t, because the two days aren’t bought the same way: the internal day is bought in a bundle of 218, the external day one at a time.

The three branches on a 100-day need

BranchAnnual costWhat you’re buying
Build, by hiring€78,546218 days, of which 118 for something else
Outsource€57,500100 days, and nothing else
Do nothing€36,030100 days taken from people already busy

The third line is the one no one calculates. An untreated need doesn’t disappear: it gets absorbed, in pieces, by people whose job it isn’t and who spend time on it regardless. That time has a price, and it’s the same price as the first line, 360 euros a day.

Doing nothing isn’t free. It’s simply the only one of the three branches that requires no signature.

What the table doesn’t say, and what decides

The spare capacity of the first branch. The remaining 118 days are only wasted if no one has a use for them. In a company of 20 to 200 people, there is always a second need waiting, and that’s what makes hiring profitable, not the first one.

The quality of absorption in the third. A need handled in pieces, by someone learning at the same time, takes more than 100 days. The real cost of this branch exceeds the one shown, without anyone knowing by how much.

What stays within the company. The external branch leaves what was written down. The internal branch leaves a person who knows the system. The status-quo branch leaves a skill scattered across several heads, which is the worst of the three cases for continuity.

What you will be told, and what to answer

“A contractor costs more per day.” Yes, 60 % more. And they cost nothing the remaining 118 days. The daily comparison only makes sense if the need fills a full year.

“We’ll absorb it internally, it costs nothing.” It costs 360 euros per absorbed day, taken from activities that won’t get done. Ask which ones. If no one can name what was pushed back, the need is being absorbed at the expense of quality or timeline.

“We’ll hire once the volume justifies it.” The tipping point is 137 days at the reference rate. Below that volume, the service contract wins. Above it, hiring wins provided the need lasts three years. These two figures turn an opinion into a criterion.

“We have no one to manage it.” That’s the argument that disqualifies the first branch, and it’s admissible. It doesn’t make the third one better for that: a need absorbed without management produces exactly the same flaws, without the salary in front of it.

To check for yourself, in twenty minutes

The real volume of the need, in days. Take six months of requests and count. Most needs believed to be permanent run between 60 and 90 days a year.

Your internal daily cost. Annual employer cost divided by your real number of working days, leave and absences deducted. This figure should appear on the first page of every arbitration file, and it almost never does.

What was pushed back this year. The list of postponed projects is the record of the third branch. It’s more telling than any table.

The predictable duration of the need. Three years remains the threshold beyond which hiring is justified.

The sentence to remember

There aren’t two branches but three, and the third is the only one never billed to anyone.

Open in a spreadsheet · The three branches, as a spreadsheet (849 bytes)

Sources

Last reviewed: 20 August 2026

Figures to review before 20 February 2028