France-The Country Of The 49 Employee Firms

One interesting fact is that France has 2.4 times as many companies with 49 employees as with 50. Why? Because once a company reached 50 employees they must initiate profit sharing, create "worker councils" and submit restructuring plans to these councils if they decide to fire workers for economic reasons.

The economic damage from these rules is somewhat mitigated by the loophole that an entrepreneur can create several small companies that function much like one larger. Still, that create unnecessary bureaucracy and illustrates that France's problem certainly isn't too little government intervention, as newly elected President Francois Hollande believes, but too much.