Hiring aids: recruit your first employee at the right cost

Hiring-aid schemes take several forms, applied differently by country:

• Employer-contribution exemptions or reductions, sometimes targeted at low wages or first hires.
• Hiring bonuses, often tied to a group (young people, long-term jobseekers, people with disabilities).
• Subsidised and work-study contracts (apprenticeship, professionalisation), with state or regional financial support.
• Support for training the new employee.

These aids aim to reduce the cost and risk of the first hire, while encouraging the integration of certain groups.

Labour law and hiring aids are set by each member state. Exemptions, bonuses and subsidised contracts differ between France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland and other countries.

The simulator therefore always starts from your country of establishment. It highlights likely schemes, but hiring remains governed by local labour law (contract, declarations, contributions).

The simulator is free and requires no account for a first result. It cross-references your situation (country, type of role, future employee's profile) with a database of real schemes.

No amount is invented: when reliable data is missing, we say so and point to the official sources to consult.

Hiring aids directly affect your financial forecast: they reduce the real employer cost in the first years.

Remember to include these schemes in your forecast and business plan. To align hiring, figures and project, the Pro journey brings together the key creation steps.