Since the publication of the decrees governing salary increases in Tunisia’s private sector, one figure has dominated discussions: 5%.

Yet, after several weeks of exchanges with business leaders, HR managers, corporate legal advisors, and payroll professionals, we have observed that the real questions lie elsewhere.

This reform has brought back to the forefront topics often regarded as purely technical: sectoral collective bargaining agreements, job classifications, salary structures, and social compliance.

What if the real challenge was not the salary increase itself, but rather how it should be implemented?

2. What Does It Really Mean to Be Covered by the Salary Increase?

The decree explicitly states that employees whose remuneration exceeds the minimum salaries established by collective bargaining agreements are also covered by the measure.

However, this provision raises a practical question currently fueling discussions within many organizations:

What should be the basis for calculating the increase?

Let us consider a few examples from the Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Electrical and Electronics Industry, often used as a reference by industrial and technology companies.

Under the 40-hour workweek regime, a Category 1, Grade 1 “frontline manager”

—roughly comparable to an entry-level engineer—has a collective base salary of 1,179.679 TND. A 5% increase would therefore represent approximately 59 TND.

Another example: a Category 3, Grade 3 supervisory employee—potentially corresponding to a production supervisor, experienced team leader, or workshop manager depending on the organization—has a collective base salary of 987.244 TND. Applying a 5% increase would result in approximately 49 TND.

These examples illustrate the importance of professional classifications established by collective bargaining agreements, which serve as the reference point for determining collective minimum salaries and, according to certain interpretations, the application of the new salary increases.

In practice, however, many employees earn salaries that significantly exceed collective minimums. An entry-level engineer or experienced supervisor may receive an internally negotiated salary well above the amounts defined by the collective grid.

This leads to a fundamental question:

Did the legislator intend to increase the collective salary benchmarks that constitute the minimum foundation for all employees, or to impose a proportional increase on the entirety of the salaries actually paid by companies?

This distinction is far from theoretical.

It may have significant implications for companies’ payroll costs while also raising questions of fairness between employees covered by different collective agreements or subject to different internal compensation policies.

At this stage, our technical interpretation suggests that collective salary grids remain the central reference around which the entire mechanism is structured. The fact that employees earning above collective minimums fall within the scope of the decree does not, in itself, definitively determine the calculation basis of the increase.

This issue will likely continue to generate debate in the coming months and may eventually lead to further administrative or judicial clarification.

3. How Should Legal Salary Increases Be Integrated into Existing Compensation Policies?

This reform should not overshadow an important reality: many Tunisian companies already have established internal salary increase policies.

Annual performance reviews, promotions, market adjustments, and periodic salary reviews often constitute the primary drivers of wage progression.

In some cases, these mechanisms may be more frequent, more consistent, or even more generous than legally mandated increases.

A key question therefore arises:

How should the legal increase be reconciled with existing compensation policies already implemented by companies?

The decree provides a partial answer.

It stipulates that a company which has already granted, during 2026, a general salary increase equal to or greater than the increase required by the legislation may, under certain conditions, be exempt from applying an additional increase.

This provision appears to acknowledge the existence of pre-existing compensation policies and their role in employee remuneration growth.

In some organizations, therefore, legal increases become part of a broader compensation dynamic already driven by the company itself.

4. Should Salary Increases Granted Before 2026 Be Ignored?

The decree uses the year 2026 as the reference period for assessing salary increases already granted.

However, this approach raises an interesting consideration.

Imagine two companies:

• The first grants a general salary increase in January 2026;
• The second grants a similar increase in November 2025.

In the first case, the company may benefit from the exemption provided by the decree.

In the second case, a strict reading of the text could lead to a different conclusion.

Yet from an economic perspective, the impact on payroll costs and employees’ purchasing power is relatively similar.

The legislator appears to have favored a calendar-year approach rather than a rolling twelve-month analysis.

While this approach has the advantage of simplicity, it may lead to situations where companies facing similar realities are nevertheless subject to different obligations.

5. Beyond the Decree, the Real Challenge Is Human

This is perhaps the most important lesson we have drawn from recent weeks.

Companies are not reaching out to us merely to calculate salary adjustments or interpret legal texts.

They are seeking understanding.

Understanding their employees’ expectations.

Understanding the social consequences of their decisions.

Understanding how to communicate clearly about a sensitive topic.

Because behind every legal salary increase lie very different perceptions.

Many employees are discovering, often for the first time, the existence of collective bargaining agreements, professional classifications, and collective mechanisms that have nonetheless governed their employment relationship for years.

Others naturally assume that the announced percentage should apply to their actual salary, even though the precise implementation methods remain subject to interpretation.

Business leaders, meanwhile, must find the right balance between legal compliance, internal fairness, economic constraints, and the preservation of a healthy social climate.

In this context, the role of HR professionals, payroll managers, and business leaders extends far beyond administrative compliance.

Applying the law is essential.

Explaining it is equally important.

People cannot be managed solely through decrees, payroll slips, or Excel spreadsheets.

They must also be managed through education, transparency, consistency, and sometimes the courage to make difficult decisions.

Ultimately, these decrees have already achieved one positive outcome:

They have brought back into focus topics often considered technical—sectoral collective bargaining agreements, professional classifications, compensation structures, and social compliance—even though they are, in reality, the very foundations of the relationship between companies and their employees.

Payroll is a technical discipline.

But behind every payroll line, there is always a human reality.

Who We Are ?

SAMASYS operates at the intersection of payroll, employment law, technology, and management.

We provide Payroll Engineering, Payroll Governance, and Social Compliance services to help organizations transform payroll from a purely administrative function into a strategic driver of compliance, transparency, and performance.

Above all, we are business practitioners. We understand operational constraints, human challenges, and the realities of the B2B environment.

II. Why Outsource Your French Payroll with Samasys?

1. 100% Payroll Expertise

Samasys is not a generalist BPO provider. Payroll has been our core business for over 12 years.

We support French SMEs and accounting firms with:

• payslip production,

• DSN and social declarations,

• compliance control and regulatory monitoring.

Our strength lies in a team exclusively dedicated to French payroll, with full mastery of collective agreements and DSN obligations.

2. Controlled Costs Without Compromising Quality

Thanks to this local and sustainable approach, Samasys is able to offer competitive pricing per payslip while guaranteeing:

• high-quality deliverables,

• strict adherence to deadlines,

• a GDPR-compliant working environment.

3. Operational Leadership Rooted in French BPO Standards

Our French payroll project manager has over seven years of production experience for French BPO firms such as Mazars.

She now oversees production, continuous training, and skills development for our payroll teams.

This ensures service quality aligned with French standards, supported by expert supervision and clear reporting.

Conclusion

Outsourcing French payroll is no longer merely a cost-reduction lever. It is a strategic decision that directly impacts service quality, compliance, and long-term sustainability.

Tunisia is now positioned as a trusted partner for French companies seeking to delegate their payroll while maintaining control and proximity.

And with Samasys, you benefit from a specialized, ethical, and sustainable player—deeply rooted in the region and fully committed to excellence in French payroll.

III. A Two-Speed Tunisian Labor Market

One of the key explanatory factors lies in the increasing polarization of the Tunisian labor market.

On one side are companies operating mainly within the local economy, characterized by:

• constrained margins,

• sometimes more traditional business models,

• varying levels of organizational complexity.

On the other side are subsidiaries or companies with foreign capital, integrated into international groups, characterized by:

• higher performance and skills requirements;

• more structured and demanding work organizations;

• international standards in governance, compliance, and reporting;

• generally higher financial capacity.

This structural gap directly impacts:

• the actual level of responsibility attached to roles,

• the skills expected,

• and, consequently, the legitimacy of remuneration levels exceeding legal minimums.

This is not a challenge to the social framework, but rather an economic reading of the diversity of situations.

IV. The Side Effects of a System Focused on Gross Salary

When compensation is viewed almost exclusively through the lens of gross salary, several distortions emerge:

• Poaching practices that sometimes lead to unsustainable salary bidding wars;

• Wage inflation disconnected from real value creation;

• Social demands concentrated on cash compensation, to the detriment of other levers;

• Growing frustration on both the employer and employee sides, due to expectations that are difficult to reconcile.

In other words, the challenge is not only the level of pay, but the fact that professional recognition is often reduced to salary alone, whereas it could take many other forms.

V. Rethinking Compensation: Toward a Holistic “Compensation & Benefits” Approach

In this context, more and more companies are moving toward a holistic compensation approach, incorporating the concept of Compensation & Benefits or Total Reward.

This approach is based on a simple idea: compensation is not limited to salary.

It may include non-financial or indirectly financial levers, such as:

• flexible working time arrangements,

• collective transportation solutions,

• childcare or education support,

• workplace well-being and quality of life,

• stability, contractual clarity, and long-term career visibility.

In certain contexts, these elements contribute more to engagement and retention than purely salary-based increases, which are sometimes quickly neutralized by inflation or taxation.

In some cases, quality of life offsets salary escalation more effectively than wage competition.

VI. Conclusion – Toward a More Mature Approach to Compensation

Salary benchmarks remain useful tools, but they cannot constitute a universal answer. Labor law, for its part, sets an essential minimum framework. Compensation policy is, fundamentally, an act of management and strategy.

In a changing economic environment, rethinking compensation requires a broader and more structured vision, integrating:

• the legal framework,

• economic realities,

• human expectations.

This reflection is not intended to replace benchmarking work conducted by compensation specialists, but rather to highlight the importance of a complementary, more technical and regulatory reading of salary structuring.

Only under these conditions will companies be able to move beyond current tensions and build compensation policies that are fair, sustainable, and attractive.

What if We Rethought Working Time?

We often talk about “working time” in quantitative terms: 35 hours in France, 40 elsewhere, 48 in some Tunisian collective agreements.
But beyond the numbers, what does our organization of time say about our relationship to the world — to freedom, and to productivity?

Why do we work eight hours a day, five or six days a week?
Why is it a continuous day, usually starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m.?
Why Sunday as a rest day — and not another?

These rarely asked questions take us back to the origins of time management:

• Industrial heritage, which normalized the “8 hours of work / 8 hours of leisure / 8 hours of rest” formula.

• Religious and cultural heritage, where Sunday rest was sanctified by the Church, then enshrined in social law.

• Economic and military heritage, which favored uniform hours for collective efficiency.

But in a world where productivity is increasingly detached from physical presence, where offices are air-conditioned, where digital tools enable asynchronous collaboration, and where the boundary between personal and professional life fades — are these models still relevant?

Karl Marx’s reflection on alienation remains strikingly current: by conditioning our lives to a fixed structure, we lose control over our time, our energy, and our mental health.

Because working time is not just hours spent at the office:

• Add commuting time — turning an “8-hour day” into a 10-hour day under professional constraint.

• Add the mental load of reconciling fixed hours with family obligations: dropping off children, handling paperwork, managing emergencies.

Working time ends up shaping our entire existence: it dictates when we eat, when we sleep, when we see our loved ones.
It affects our physical health (stress, chronic fatigue) — and even that of our children.

Yet, most of us see it as something imposed — an external parameter we simply have to accept.
Even business leaders suffer from this organizational stereotype: they know certain schedules are counterproductive, but without managerial innovation or legal alternatives, they’re forced to replicate the same models.

Our Relationship to Time: A Matter of Perception

Working time is, above all, a subjective experience.

Some employees wish the day had 48 hours — they love what they do, thrive in it, and see productivity as a source of energy.
For others, the standard eight-hour day feels endless.

A simple typology might look like this:

• The Passionate – They live their work as a life project; time flies.

• The Disciplined – They respect working hours but count down to the end of the day.

• The Disengaged – They find ways to “kill time.”

The real issue isn’t about longer or shorter hours, but about improving the quality of the experience.

Rethinking Working Time – A Global Movement

This reflection isn’t just philosophical — it’s happening worldwide.

?? United Kingdom & Iceland – Large-scale trials of the 4-day week with full pay: lower stress, higher engagement, no productivity loss.
?? Spain – State-supported pilot programs reducing weekly hours to 32.
???? Nordic countries – Widespread adoption of flexible schedules and hybrid work.
?? United States – Rise of “Results Only Work Environments” (ROWE), where only outcomes matter.
?? South Africa & ?? Kenya – Experiments reducing commute times and implementing compressed workdays to ease congestion.

These initiatives show that the discussion is no longer about increasing or reducing hours, but about rethinking the very organization of work.

What If We Followed the Rhythm of the Sun?

I dream of a model where we work in tune with natural light:

• Start early, at sunrise, focusing on high-value tasks until midday.

• Resume early afternoon with lighter, more creative or collaborative work.

• Leave the evening free for family, personal projects, or rest.

Perhaps by 2050, we’ll look back at our 8-hour days as relics of the industrial age.

Conclusion – Time as a Shared Resource

An old Maltese friend of my father used to say, “You must give time to time.”

In a world that keeps accelerating, learning to use time wisely has become a strategic skill.

For companies, it means rethinking schedules, formalizing clear policies, and experimenting with innovative models.
For employees, it means recognizing the value of time spent at work — and ensuring it truly counts.

Back-to-work season, then, isn’t just a return to the office.
It’s an opportunity to reinvent our relationship with time — so that every hour becomes more than a constraint: a contribution to a shared project.

Before: Professional Mobility…

For a long time, professional mobility was something endured rather than chosen: relocations, expatriations decided by the company, departures dictated by corporate strategy.

Today, with the rise of Digital Nomads, the paradigm has shifted. Employees have become active participants in their own mobility, and some companies have understood the trend: offering the freedom to work from anywhere has become a powerful lever for retaining talent—especially in tech and digital services.

Who Are the Digital Nomads?

They are professionals—either employees or freelancers—who work remotely while living temporarily in other countries.

To welcome them, several countries have introduced specific visas allowing them to reside without a local employment contract: Portugal, Estonia, Dubai… and now, several African destinations too! ?

Did You Know You Have… an Embassy Just for You?

Yes, it exists: Nomad Embassy (nomadsembassy.com). A portal designed to support international remote workers in all their administrative steps:

• Preparing and submitting your digital nomad visa application,

• Checking the tax conditions in the host country,

• Guidance on international health insurance,

• Even connecting you with local communities so you’re never alone.

Spotlight on an African Pioneer: Mauritius

Well before its neighbors, Mauritius understood the opportunity represented by this new generation of mobile workers. An official website, under the Ministry of Development, is dedicated to them: residency.mu.

There, you’ll find all the advantages and incentives to settle in… a kind of tropical professional retreat.

Imagine your daily life:

• Morning: debugging an app or fine-tuning AI prompts, facing the Indian Ocean.

• Lunch break: Mauritian curry with local spices.

• Afternoon: video calls from a coworking space filled with natural light.

• Evening or weekend: hiking in Black River Gorges National Park or exploring the Seven-Colored Earths in Chamarel.

A perfect balance between productivity and escape.

? North Africa – Tunisia – Djerba: The Perfect Blend of Sea and Medina

Picture this: waking up to the endless blue of the Mediterranean, a steaming coffee in hand on the terrace of a white-and-blue riad.

The morning begins in a coworking space in the heart of Houmt Souk, surrounded by local entrepreneurs and fellow nomads from around the world.

Lunch break? A seafood couscous shared under a centuries-old olive tree.

Afternoon: a few video calls from a shaded patio, powered by flawless fiber connection, followed by a bike ride through palm groves and along wild beaches to end the day.

By evening, the keyboard is traded for a sunset on Sidi Mahrez beach… and you realize that yes, remote work can truly rhyme with art de vivre. ?? ?

And on the HR Side, How Does It Work?

The dream is possible… but it requires preparation.
Our role, as payroll & compliance experts, is to make it simple:

• Check compatibility between the host country and the employer’s country legislation (tax regimes, social security obligations, insurance).

• Support employers with the necessary steps: mobility clause or contract addendum, possible declarations, managing benefits in kind.

• Secure payroll: avoid double taxation, optimize social protection, and ensure rights are maintained.

In short: you enjoy the warm sand… we handle the shifting sands of administration.

Remote Work as a Two-Way Bridge

At Samasys, we see remote work as a two-way bridge:

• welcoming talents from abroad to enrich our local ecosystems, and

• supporting our own talents when they bring their expertise to new horizons.

Whether it’s a Moroccan designer spending a few months in Cape Verde, or a European developer setting up their laptop in Djerba, we make the payroll and HR transition seamless—so everyone can focus on their work… and on discovering their new environment.

Our role? Streamline exchanges, secure the essentials, and leave room for the inspiration that arises when the office opens up to the world.