Workers with children in Greece take home less pay than OECD peers, report finds
Greece ranked 14th among the 34 OECD member countries in decreasing order with a tax wedge for an average single worker at 39.3 percent in 2015, compared with the OECD average of 35.9 percent, occupying the same position as it did in 2014, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report published on Tuesday.
Greece also had the sixth highest tax wedge in the OECD for an average married worker with two children at 38.1 percent in 2015, compared with the OECD average of 26.7 percent, the report said. It added that while child related benefits and tax provisions tend to reduce the tax wedge for workers with children compared with the average single worker, in Greece in 2015, this reduction, at 1.2 percentage points, was less than the OECD average of 9.2 percent.
Between 2000 and 2015, the tax wedge for the average single worker in Greece rose 0.2 percent from 39.1 to 39.3 percent, while across the OECD it decreased by 0.7 percentage points from 36.6 to 35.9 percent. However, the report noted, “there has been considerable volatility in the tax wedge for the average single worker since 2010. Most notably, there was an increase of 3.1 percentage points between 2010 and 2011 and there has been a subsequent decrease of 3.9 percentage points since 2011.”
The take-home pay of a single worker in Greece, after tax and benefits, came to 75.7 percent of gross wage in 2015, the study found, compared with the OECD average of 74.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the average married worker with two children in Greece in 2015 had a take-home pay, after tax and family benefits, of 77.1 percent of gross wage compared to 85.4 percent for the OECD average.
