News - 13 June 2019 11:30

[Audio News Release] Large differences in tax contributions of minimum wage workers across Europe

"Changes to the minimum wage can represent little more than a re-shuffling of numbers on payslips if changes to tax and social security contributions are also made"

The latest Annual Review of minimum wages in the EU gives a detailed analysis of minimum wage rates across Europe, and not only looks at the nominal and real terms increased in minimum wages - but also levels of taxation and net pay.

When tax and social contributions are analysed, there are considerable differences in how much social contributions minimum wage workers make across Europe. For example, a single, minimum wage worker in Vilnius with no dependents would pay 39.5% of their gross earnings in tax and social contributions; whereas a minimum wage worker in Brussels in the same situation would pay just 4.25%.

Christine Aumayr-Pintar, Research Manager at Eurofound, says that analysing net pay is vital when looking at minimum wages. Click here or on the related material below to listen to the audio.

More information:

Full audio transcription of the clip in the Word document attached.

You can download the full Minimum wages in 2019 annual review here.

For more information on this story, please contact James Higgins.

Topics

Contacts

James Higgins

Press contact Communication Officer jhi@eurofound.europa.eu +353-1-204-3100

Christine Aumayr-Pintar

Senior Research Manager cau@eurofound.europa.eu

Related media

Gross and net annual earnings of single adult workers on the minimum wage

Gross and net annual earnings of single adult workers on the minimum wage
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Audio: Large differences in tax contributions of minimum wage workers across Europe

Audio: Large differences in tax contributions of minimum wage workers across Europe
License: Non-commercial use
The Content may be downloaded, used and shared with others, provided that the Content is unmodified, used as a whole and for a non-commercial purpose.The author or creator shall be attributed to the extent and in the manner required by good practice (this means e.g. that photographers must almost always be attributed).
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[Audio News Release] Large differences in tax contributions of minimum wage workers across Europe
License: Non-commercial use
The Content may be downloaded, used and shared with others, provided that the Content is unmodified, used as a whole and for a non-commercial purpose.The author or creator shall be attributed to the extent and in the manner required by good practice (this means e.g. that photographers must almost always be attributed).
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