Submitted by Taps Coogan on the 1st of May 2018 to The Sounding Line.

The following chart, from Statista.com, shows the effective tax rate paid by workers on their gross income in several of the world’s largest economies.

You will find more infographics at Statista

At 39.9% of gross income, German workers pay the highest taxes on their wages. Germany is followed by Italy at 31.2% and France at 29.2%. The US comes in 5th place at 26.1%. Bare in mind that all of the countries analyzed utilize progressive income tax schemes. As such, these figures represent overall rates. Individual rates will vary.

These tax rates only represent the rates paid employees on their earnings. They do not include the always overlooked payroll taxes paid by employers on the wages that they pay. These employer taxes are often roughly as high as the employee’s own social security taxes. If one combines the taxes employers and employees pay on a worker’s income, in many cases, taxes are now over 50% of the actual cost of an employee.

In a world where governments are taking roughly half of workers’ income in taxes, it should come as no surprise that employment, productivity, and incomes have stagnant.

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