The OECD has published its annual Taxing Wages report which provides cross-country comparative data on the amounts of taxes and social security contributions (SSCs) made by workers and their employers across the world. For 2015, Ireland’s tax wedge was 27.5 per cent while the UK’s tax wedge was 30.8 per cent, which are both below the OECD average of 35.9 per cent.

The level of tax and SSCs in each country is measured by the ‘tax wedge’ which is the total tax paid by employees and employers, minus family benefits received as a percentage of the total labour costs of the employer.

The highest average tax wedges for childless single workers earning the average national wage were in Belgium (55.3 per cent), Austria (49.5 per cent), Germany (49.4 per cent) and Hungary (49 per cent). The lowest were in Chile (7 per cent), New Zealand (17.6 per cent) and Mexico (19.7 per cent).