Taxing Wages 2023
Indexation of Labour Taxation and Benefits in OECD Countries
This annual publication 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. For the year 2022, the report 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. It 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). The average tax rates measure the part of gross wage earnings or labour costs taken in tax and social security contributions, both before and after cash benefits, and the marginal tax rates the part of a small increase of gross earnings or labour costs that is paid in these levies.
Also available in: French
Overview
This chapter presents the main results of the analysis of the taxation of labour income across OECD countries in 2022. Most emphasis is given to the tax wedge, a measure of the difference between labour costs to the employer and the corresponding net take-home pay of the employee. The chapter also examines the net personal average tax rate, which expresses personal income tax and employee social security contributions net of cash benefits as a percentage of gross wage earnings. The analysis focuses on the single worker, with no children, at average earnings, which it compares with a one-earner married couple with two children at the same income level, as well as a two-earner married couple with two children, where one spouse earns the average wage and the other 67% of it. The chapter includes analysis of changes in average wages in OECD countries in 2022.
Also available in: French
- Click to access:
-
Click to download PDF - 733.11KBPDF