Yes I do think it would be likely to end up in employees pockets for many actually, over time (but probably only for a few overnight). This is what has largely happened with employer pension contributions which were capped first via the lifetime allowance and then the taper down from 40k to 10k for income over 150k. Most employers now offer a cash (ie salary increase) alternative at neutral cost to the employer.

Not including employers contribution when comparing countries is just non-sense to me: the only number that matters is the total cost per added employee for a business, and on the other side for the employee the after-tax money that remains after everything is deducted. And then you can put the services you get for the money (i.e. yes taxes are higher in France for instance, but the state provides also much more).