Average tax and social security burdens on employment incomes fell slightly in 24 out of 30 OECD countries last year as governments struggled to shore up faltering economies amid the worst recession in decades according to the latest edition of the OECD's annual publication “Taxing Wages”.

Ireland increased the tax wedge on average-income single earners by 1.54 percentage points and on one-earner average income married couples with two children by two percentage points as part of a drive to raise more tax revenues. Even so, the tax wedge remained below the OECD average in both cases, at 28.6% and 11.7% respectively.

“Taxing Wages” calculates the difference between the total cost to an employer of employing someone and that person's net take-home pay, including any cash benefits from government welfare programmes, to define what it calls the ‘tax wedge’. The tax burden at any given level of earnings is derived by dividing this ‘tax wedge’ by the total payroll costs. The Taxing Wages publication provides an overview of the taxation of employment income across OECD countries and the distribution of this tax burden across different household types and levels of earnings.

For further details go to http://www.oecd.org/document/57/0,3343,en_2649_201185_45071289_1_1_1_1,00.html