Comparing gross/net ratios across EU countries doesn't give useful information since different countries define them differently. Something like total payroll cost / salary fund per employee vs net would be more appropriate.
For example, in Estonia, social contribution tax (33% of gross) isn't considered a part of gross salary, so it's left out of these sorts of statistics, only because it's technically paid by the employer. In reality, income and unemployment taxes are also withheld and paid by the employer as part of the same tax report and payment as the social tax. You don't actually take home 80%+ of what the employer spends on your salary, more like <60%.
I'm sure other countries have their own quirks for defining gross vs net.
Interesting, but I wonder whether that's not due to some misunderstanding. In Germany the employer pays half the social security and health care costs, which is not considered part of gross, because, well, it's not the gross income of the employee, but part of the cost of the job to the employer (and of little concern to the employee).
Ultimately that's just an accounting trick that makes it appear like the government takes less than it actually does.
What we really care about is how much the government takes from us ("total cost to employer" - "net payment to employee") and what it provides in return.
I totally agree, UK should be included, but this article is based on Eurostat's 2023 dataset which includes all EU member states, three European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries [Switzerland, Iceland, Norway], and one EU candidate country [Turkey].
Raw data available: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data
Comparing gross/net ratios across EU countries doesn't give useful information since different countries define them differently. Something like total payroll cost / salary fund per employee vs net would be more appropriate.
For example, in Estonia, social contribution tax (33% of gross) isn't considered a part of gross salary, so it's left out of these sorts of statistics, only because it's technically paid by the employer. In reality, income and unemployment taxes are also withheld and paid by the employer as part of the same tax report and payment as the social tax. You don't actually take home 80%+ of what the employer spends on your salary, more like <60%.
I'm sure other countries have their own quirks for defining gross vs net.
Interesting, but I wonder whether that's not due to some misunderstanding. In Germany the employer pays half the social security and health care costs, which is not considered part of gross, because, well, it's not the gross income of the employee, but part of the cost of the job to the employer (and of little concern to the employee).
Ultimately that's just an accounting trick that makes it appear like the government takes less than it actually does.
What we really care about is how much the government takes from us ("total cost to employer" - "net payment to employee") and what it provides in return.
Shame they didn't include the UK, it's Europe's biggest competitor in terms of where workers can easily move to.
I totally agree, UK should be included, but this article is based on Eurostat's 2023 dataset which includes all EU member states, three European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries [Switzerland, Iceland, Norway], and one EU candidate country [Turkey]. Raw data available: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data
> where workers can easily move to.
Is this part still true though?