Working as an Employer: When Umbrella Companies Are Selling Wages

Based on a sociological survey of wage portage and the activities of umbrella companies, this article investigates changes in the employer's role and responsibilities. These for-profit companies offer to hire independent workers as salaried employees, converting their revenues into wages. The emergence of this activity can be seen as the consequence of companies seeking to avoid the traditional obligations and responsibilities of employers. Umbrella companies take on the role of employer as a commercial activity and become part of a competitive employer's market. Based on interviews, ethnographic observations and the use of contractual documents, this article attempts to decipher the day-to-day work of such companies. It identifies three main dimensions: the work to legitimise umbrella companies as institutions that are recognised by the authorities as legal employers; the technical work of converting revenues into wages; the work of attracting and retaining customers in order to increase market share.