Greece at 45.1% vs Chile at 8.4%: Employee Tax-and-SSC Spread
Employee tax and social-security deductions as a share of gross pay span 36.8 percentage points across 38 OECD countries at $100K, from Greece's 45.1% to Chile's 8.4%.
Research period:
Research Question
Across 38 OECD countries, how wide is the employee tax-and-SSC burden at $100K (single filer) - and which countries impose the highest and lowest combined income-tax + employee SSC burden?
Methodology
For each of the 38 OECD countries in PlainGlobalPay, we computed employee tax and social-security deductions as (income_tax + employee_ssc) / gross_local × 100 at salary_usd=100000, family_type='single'. This measure excludes employer-side social contributions and VAT; it is therefore narrower than the OECD tax wedge. We ranked and reported the top five and bottom five.
Findings
PlainGlobalPay computes take-home pay for 38 OECD countries at salary levels from $20,000 to $300,000 across three family types, from the OECD Taxing Wages (2025 data) dataset. The figures below use the single-filer case at a $100,000 gross salary.
Greece at 45.1% has the highest single-filer employee deduction rate
At a $100,000 gross salary, a single worker in Greece faces employee tax and social-security deductions of 45.1 percent of gross pay, the highest in this 38-country modelled comparison. This is narrower than the OECD tax wedge because it excludes employer contributions.OECD Taxing Wages (2025 data), Comparative Tables
The employee tax-and-SSC ranking shows the full table and each country profile shows the associated net-pay scenario.
The five highest employee deduction rates
Greece (45.1%), Belgium (42.5%), Germany (40.4%), Italy (39.9%), Lithuania (39.5%) are the five highest at the $100,000 single-filer level, all from OECD Taxing Wages (2025 data).
The five lowest employee deduction rates
Chile (8.4%), Costa Rica (12.7%), Colombia (16.1%), Switzerland (18.6%), South Korea (20.7%) are the five lowest in the same comparison.
The spread between Greece's 45.1 percent and Chile's 8.4 percent is 36.8 percentage points. At a $100,000 gross salary that is approximately $36,760 before any purchasing-power adjustment. The full employee tax-and-SSC ranking lists every country.
Lowest employee tax-and-SSC deductions across the OECD
Income tax + employee SSC as % of gross at $100K, single filer
The spread, mapped around the OECD average
The 8 highest and 8 lowest of 38 OECD countries, as percentage points above or below the 30.0% average wedge
Discussion: Wider Implications
Extended Methodological Notes
What this analysis cannot tell us
The 100% of Average Wage (AW) construct in OECD Taxing Wages normalizes to each country's average wage. The $100K USD comparison is a modelled projection rather than a single OECD table. This employee-deduction measure excludes employer contributions and may not capture regional, municipal, or state income taxes. Pillar Two applies to corporate tax and is outside this individual-level analysis.
Sources
- OECD Taxing Wages (2025 data) - https://www.oecd.org/tax/tax-policy/taxing-wages-20725124.htm
- OECD Pillar Two Implementation - https://www.oecd.org/tax/beps/pillar-two-model-rules/