Where do workers take home the smallest share of their salaries in Europe?
Personal income tax and social security systems differ significantly across Europe, and so does the overall burden on workers’ pay. What matters most to workers, however, is how much of their salary they...
Personal income tax and social security systems differ significantly across Europe, and so does the overall burden on workers’ pay. What matters most to workers, however, is how much of their salary they actually take home after taxes and compulsory deductions.
To show this, Euronews Business used Eurostat data to calculate net annual earnings as a share of gross pay, producing a take-home ratio. From this, it calculated the share of gross earnings going to taxes and other deductions.
In a few cases, the result is negative, meaning workers take home more than their gross earnings, due to family allowances and tax refunds.
The share taken in taxes and deductions also varies depending on marital status and whether workers have dependent children. This article mainly focuses on a single person without children, although the charts also include other household types, along with a brief analysis.
Share of gross earnings going towards taxes and other deductions
According to Eurostat's 2025 data, released in mid-2026, the share of gross earnings going towards taxes and other deductions varies widely across the continent. For a single person without children earning the average wage, it ranges from 15.1% in Cyprus to 41.5% in Romania. The EU average is 29.1%.
For example, average annual gross earnings in the EU amount to €37,958, while net earnings are €26,929. This means €11,029 goes towards taxes and other deductions.
In addition to Romania, six other countries see more than one-third of gross earnings go towards taxes and other deductions: Lithuania (39.1%), Belgium (37.6%), Slovenia (36.9%), Germany (34.8%), Denmark (34.0%) and Hungary (33.5%).
The share is also above the EU average in Luxembourg (32.6%) and Croatia (31.5%).
At the other end of the scale, Greece (17.0%) follows Cyprus, with less than one-fifth of gross earnings going towards taxes and other deductions.
Big Four economies: Germany highest, Spain lowest
Several countries cluster in the 22% to 25% range. Czechia (21.6%), Ireland (21.6%), Portugal (21.8%), Spain (22.1%), Bulgaria (22.4%), Malta (23.1%), Estonia (23.2%), Italy (24.1%), Sweden (24.5%) and Slovakia (24.6%) all record shares below one quarter.
Among the EU's four largest economies, Germany has the highest share of gross earnings going towards taxes and other deductions, at 34.8%, while Spain has the lowest, at 22.1%. The figure is 26.2% in France and 24.1% in Italy.
Broadly speaking, Southern European countries tend to have lower shares of gross earnings going towards taxes and other deductions, while higher shares are more common in Central and Eastern Europe. Western Europe is more mixed, although Belgium and Germany rank among the highest. The Nordic and Baltic countries also show considerable variation, suggesting that geography alone does not explain the differences.
Children matter: €16,424 difference in Germany
Having dependent children can significantly reduce the share of gross earnings going towards taxes and other deductions, particularly for one-earner couples. For this household type, the share ranges from -3.3% in Greece to 33.4% in Romania.
The figure is also negative in Poland (-0.6%), meaning net earnings exceed gross earnings thanks to family allowances and tax refunds.
The EU average falls to 8.0%, compared with 29.1% for a single person without children.
Romania stands out at the higher end of the ranking. The second-highest share is 23.8% in Lithuania, almost 10 percentage points lower. Apart from these two countries, the share exceeds 20% only in Hungary, Slovenia, Finland and Denmark.
Comparing a single person without children with a one-earner couple with two children, Germany stands out the most. The share of gross earnings going towards taxes and other deductions falls from 34.8% to just 0.2%—a drop of 34.6 percentage points.
Annual gross earnings are €47,514 in both cases. However, a one-earner couple with two children takes home €47,424, compared with €31,000 for a single person without children—a difference of €16,424.
For two-earner couples with two children, the share going towards taxes and other deductions is lower than for a single person without children in every EU country except Greece.
Poland is among the countries with the largest difference, at 11.5 percentage points. In Greece, by contrast, the share of gross earnings going towards taxes and other deductions is the same in both scenarios.
Alex Mengden, an economist at the Tax Foundation, points to differences in how European countries tax labour and argues that the overall burden matters more than personal income tax alone.
“For example, Denmark’s tax burden on labour lies below that of Poland, but Denmark appears at the top of the ranking because its labour taxation almost exclusively relies on personal income tax while in Poland, social contributions take out almost 2.5 times the amount of what an employer pays for an average wage worker than personal income tax does, landing it at the bottom of the ranking.” he told Euronews Business.
