Publications

Public finances in OECD countries are facing significant challenges such as slow economic growth, ageing populations, high debt from recent crises, and new spending pressures, including in defence. This report looks at efforts made by OECD countries as well as some accession candidate countries and one non-Member economy in 2025 and 2026 to restore their public finances. Drawing on the results of the 2026 OECD Survey on Restoring Public Finances, it provides an overview of ongoing savings initiatives across all major spending areas, as well as details of reforms and savings measures. Further reforms will be required to ensure fiscal sustainability and generate fiscal space to empower government action. Governments will also need to continue strengthening their budgeting institutions. Finally, given that lasting support for reform depends on citizens’ awareness and ownership of both the need for change and its implications, focusing on empowering public understanding of the fiscal challenges ahead will be essential in the future. A companion report entitled The People and the Budget addresses these issues.

This annual publication provides details of taxes paid on wages in OECD countries. This year's edition focuses on the progressivity of the average tax wedge across different earnings intervals and household types. Using data up to 2025, it also examines personal income taxes and social security contributions paid by employees, social security contributions and payroll taxes paid by employers, and cash benefits received by workers. The report illustrates how these taxes and benefits are calculated in each Member country and examines how they impact household incomes. The results also enable quantitative cross-country comparisons of labour cost levels and the overall tax and benefit position of single persons and families on different levels of earnings. The publication shows average and marginal effective tax rates on labour costs for eight different household types, which vary by income level and household composition (single persons, single parents, one or two earner couples with or without children). Average tax rates measure the part of gross wage earnings or labour costs taken in tax and social security contributions, before and after cash benefits. Marginal tax rates measure the part of a small increase in gross earnings or labour costs that is paid in these levies.