The tax wedge for both single and married workers with children stands at 39%, indicating that Türkiye does not provide meaningful tax relief based on family status. Despite these already high levels, the tax wedge increased by 0.9 percentage points in 2024, further squeezing real disposable incomes. The OECD average in the same category was 25.7%, underscoring the disparity between Türkiye and other members. The tax wedge increased in 22 countries and fell in 14, for a decrease in the OECD average from 36.2 to 36.1. Although the U.S. tax wedge has consistently been below the OECD average, it is now even further below. It is also important to point out that the tax burden of workers varies based on family composition.
- The new OECD analysis focuses on cross-country comparisons of “tax incidence on labor,” defined as the total labor taxes paid by both employees and employers, minus family benefits, as a percentage of labor costs.
- The average employer-side payroll tax burden in the OECD is higher at 14.3 percent.
- It is also interesting to note that even though Denmark has low payroll taxes, its government still places a relatively high tax burden on average workers through higher individual income taxes (an effective rate of 35.8 percent).
- Fortunately, the OECD has done all the hard yards, with decades of work analysing the “tax wedge” – the proportion of labour cost paid in tax for the average worker.
- Income taxes in most countries, including the U.S., are progressive, but even average-wage workers end up paying about one-third of their wages in taxes.
The following graph shows the OECD countries with the largest increases and oecd income tax wedge chart decreases in their respective tax wedges. Although the tax wedge has changed quite substantially in some countries over time, the average OECD tax burden on labor has dropped just 1.4 percentage points over the past two decades. In 2000, the average OECD tax wedge was 36.2 percent, compared to 34.8 percent in 2023. Between 2021 and 2023, the average OECD tax burden increased slightly by 0.2 percentage points. This slight increase shows the importance of indexing the income tax to inflation to avoid bracket creep.
The approach does not, for instance, take account of the potential returns that may be generated by mandatory pension contributions. 13 Returns perceived as too low will increase the tax character of these contributions. 14 An important role is also played by the extent to which contributors trust the pension system. Crucial factors here are the sustainability and credibility of the pension system.
OECD tax rates
10 Here, “average wage” refers to total pre-tax wages of full-time workers divided by the number of full-time workers. Discover the highlights of the annual publication that provides details of taxes paid on wages in OECD countries. This year’s edition focuses on the impact of recent inflation on labour taxation in the OECD and how countries adjust their tax systems in response. The cash benefits that are considered in the Taxing Wages publication are those universally paid to workers in respect of dependent children between the ages of six to eleven inclusive. In-work benefits that are paid to workers regardless of their family situation are also included in the calculations.
Box 2: Indexation of labour taxation and benefits in OECD countries
The burden of wage taxes in Germany, at 15 %, is more in the middle of the range and less significantly above the OECD average of 14 %. The number is derived by multiplying the OECD measure of the U.S. average labor cost of $55,457 by 91.9 percent (1 minus 8.1 percent). New Zealand provided the largest relative reduction of taxes for families with children compared to single, childless workers. The total tax burden of a married couple with two children in New Zealand (4.9 percent) was 72 percent lower than the 17.6 percent total tax burden on a single, childless worker in 2015. The countries with the lowest combined payroll tax burdens were Australia (5.6 percent), Denmark (.8 percent), and New Zealand (0 percent).

The U.S. Tax Burden on Labor, 2019
A closer look at the OECD’s tax wedge on labour, however, reveals a fairly mixed picture. If that person factors this into their considerations, the pension contribution dampens their incentives to work to a lesser degree. A clear and reliable link between contributions and benefits is important in this regard. The tax wedge on labour – i.e. the burden of taxes and social security contributions on labour income – is a frequently discussed topic. A large tax wedge reduces incentives to work, thus potentially exacerbating the challenges an economy faces from skilled labour shortages and demographic ageing.
For this reason, the approach likewise takes into account only the fundamental pension systems (in Germany, for example, only the statutory pension insurance scheme). The simple approach of comparing the tax/benefit position for eight model families avoids many of the conceptual and definitional problems involved in more complex international comparisons of tax burdens and transfer programmes. The country whose workers paid the largest proportion of their total tax bill through their employer payroll taxes was Estonia. Their 25.3 percent employer-side payroll tax was 64.7 percent of their total tax burden in 2015. The 31.7 percent tax wedge for a U.S. worker represents a $9,167 average individual income tax bill and an $8,391 average payroll tax bill for a total average tax bill of about $17,558. The first tax is a 12.4 percent tax which is used to fund Social Security (Table 2).
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- For other countries things are more nuanced, with some surprising countries (Germany!) becoming lower tax than the UK once kids are in the picture.
- The EFSA and ECDC’s One Health report “Taxing Wages 2024” reveals that effective tax rates on labor income have increased in most OECD countries, with the post-tax income of single workers earning the average wage falling in 21 of the 38 OECD countries.
- And employee payroll taxes accounted for a larger share of the tax burden on labor than employer payroll taxes in seven OECD countries—Chile, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovenia.
- The amount of income tax paid typically also depends on whether the taxpayer is filing as single or as a family, as most countries allow for some targeted tax relief for families with children.
- The OECD average tax wedge for families is 26.6 percent, compared to the 36.1 percent average tax wedge for single workers.
We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. In order to include Belgium, France and Sweden, only two earnings levels are included for these countries. For most of the countries, the earnings levels taken into account here (up to one-and-a-half times average earnings) are below the contribution assessment ceilings.
It represented at least one-third of labour costs in Austria, the Czech Republic, France and Germany. L Presenting a brief analysis of the net personal average tax rate for a single average worker across OECD countries for 2022. In 2000, the average OECD tax wedge was 36.4 percent, compared to 34.6 percent in 2020. The highest tax wedge for one-earner families with two children at the average wage in 2018 was in France (39.4%). Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Sweden and Turkey also had tax wedges over 37%. For this family type, New Zealand had the lowest tax wedge (1.9%), followed by Chile (7.0%) and Switzerland (9.8%).
In most countries, the increase in labor taxation has been primarily driven by the increase in personal income tax. While real wages fell in 18 OECD countries, nominal wages rose in 37 of the 38 OECD countries, as inflation remained above historical levels. In the absence of automatic indexation of tax systems in many OECD countries, high inflation tends to increase workers’ tax liabilities by pushing them into higher tax brackets and eroding the value of the tax deductions and cash benefits they receive. The variation is based on how frequently an individual employer’s workers receive unemployment benefits.
It might be easier to understand the median tax burden of American taxpayers instead. Half of all taxpayers would pay less than a median figure, and half would pay more. During this sudden hike in taxes, Bill and other employees might not find it convenient to work as an employee and they might start looking for better modes of earning their bread and butter.
A more family-friendly system
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8 Although the U.S. tax wedge has consistently been below the OECD average, it is now even further below. For example, a 40% tax wedge means that for every €100 paid by the employer, only €60 ends up in the employee’s pocket. In these two countries, a single rate PIT applies to all levels of taxable income. Reflecting this trend, the government’s income tax revenues doubled in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period of 2024, rising by approximately 96.5% to ₺1.15 trillion ($46.64 billion). The following chart, using OECD data, shows that the U.S. tax wedge fell by 2.19 percentage points in 2018, from 31.8 in 2017 to 29.6 percent.
An international comparison of the tax wedge on labour: the difference between pension contributions and taxes
The cause of this decrease in the U.S. tax wedge was the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which reduced individual income tax rates beginning in 2018, lowering the tax burden on labor. After accounting for sales taxes, which reduce the purchasing power of earnings, the tax wedge in the United States is 31.5 percent. Results reported include the marginal and average tax burden for one- and two-earner households, and the implied total labour costs for employers.
Due to rounding, the changes in tax wedge in column (2) may differ by one hundredth of a percentage point from the sum of columns (3)-(6). Education is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes through formal or informal means. This category includes metrics such as literacy rates, enrollment rates, teacher-to-student ratio, and educational attainment. Other metrics like education spending, curriculum quality, and technological readiness are also included.