Under a tenth in Luxembourg, nearly half in Ireland
In Luxembourg, a single person who leaves unemployment benefit for a job paying two thirds of the average wage ends up better off by 9.35% of that job’s gross pay. The other 90.65% goes in the income tax and social contributions the job brings, and in the unemployment and other benefits that stop. Eurostat published the 2025 figures on 1 October 2026.
Ireland is at the other end of the European Union. There the same move takes 53.76% of the gross pay and leaves the person better off by 46.24%, nearly five times the share in Luxembourg. Greece, at 59.36%, is the only other member state below 60%.
Ten of the 27 member states take more than 80%: after Luxembourg come Czechia (89.25%), Croatia (88.14%), Lithuania (87.54%) and Belgium (85.29%), then Latvia, Malta, Denmark, Bulgaria and Portugal. The European Union as a whole stands at 74.5%, which leaves a jobseeker better off by 25.5% of the new pay; Germany is at 76.5%, Spain at 76.12%, France at 75.13% and Italy at 68.72%.
| Member state | Rate, 2025 | Rate, 2024 | Change, points | Kept, 2025 | Gross annual pay, euros |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Union | 74.5% | 74.0% | +0.50 | 25.5% | 29,251 |
| Luxembourg | 90.65% | 90.89% | -0.24 | 9.35% | 56,119 |
| Czechia | 89.25% | 88.92% | +0.33 | 10.75% | 17,938 |
| Croatia | 88.14% | 87.6% | +0.54 | 11.86% | 16,490 |
| Lithuania | 87.54% | 86.62% | +0.92 | 12.46% | 21,025 |
| Belgium | 85.29% | 85.74% | -0.45 | 14.71% | 39,894 |
| Latvia | 84.43% | 85.89% | -1.46 | 15.57% | 17,559 |
| Malta | 84.18% | 84.77% | -0.59 | 15.82% | 22,022 |
| Denmark | 83.56% | 83.59% | -0.03 | 16.44% | 47,979 |
| Bulgaria | 82.4% | 82.4% | 0.00 | 17.6% | 12,476 |
| Portugal | 81.47% | 81.17% | +0.30 | 18.53% | 18,605 |
| Sweden | 77.06% | 77.6% | -0.54 | 22.94% | 33,875 |
| Netherlands | 76.99% | 76.62% | +0.37 | 23.01% | 40,626 |
| Germany | 76.5% | 75.84% | +0.66 | 23.5% | 38,865 |
| Spain | 76.12% | 77.65% | -1.53 | 23.88% | 23,501 |
| Hungary | 75.82% | 75.97% | -0.15 | 24.18% | 15,548 |
| France | 75.13% | 73.61% | +1.52 | 24.87% | 29,748 |
| Estonia | 74.33% | 72.36% | +1.97 | 25.67% | 19,674 |
| Slovakia | 73.12% | 72.8% | +0.32 | 26.88% | 16,241 |
| Austria | 71.62% | 71.31% | +0.31 | 28.38% | 41,961 |
| Slovenia | 70.28% | 73.37% | -3.09 | 29.72% | 26,106 |
| Finland | 69.28% | 70.31% | -1.03 | 30.72% | 36,534 |
| Poland | 68.79% | 69.84% | -1.05 | 31.21% | 17,841 |
| Italy | 68.72% | 64.58% | +4.14 | 31.28% | 26,838 |
| Cyprus | 67.16% | 66.47% | +0.69 | 32.84% | 23,244 |
| Romania | 61.38% | 62.38% | -1.00 | 38.62% | 15,894 |
| Greece | 59.36% | 59.81% | -0.45 | 40.64% | 19,867 |
| Ireland | 53.76% | 54.87% | -1.11 | 46.24% | 41,350 |
What the rate counts
It is a model, not a survey. The rate is calculated for one illustrative person: single, without children, unemployed and receiving benefit, who takes a job paid at 67% of the national average wage. Nobody is asked anything; each country’s tax and benefit rules are applied to that person.
It adds up three things and divides them by the new gross pay: the extra income tax, the extra social contributions and the benefits that are withdrawn. A high rate therefore does not mean a high tax on wages: it can come from a benefit that replaces much of a modest wage, from the taxes on that wage, or from both, and Eurostat’s table does not separate them.
Since 2024 the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has computed the rate with its EUROMOD model; until 2023 the OECD did. Eurostat flags 2024 as a break in the series, so the figures here are compared with 2024 and with nothing earlier. Its methodology note does not say which benefits, which length of unemployment or which earlier pay the model assumes, and this edition does not guess.
- THE PERSON: single, without children, unemployed and receiving unemployment benefit, who takes a job paid at 67% of the national average wage. One case, to which each country’s tax and benefit rules for 2025 are applied; not a sample of real people.
- WHAT IS TAKEN: the extra income tax and social contributions the job brings, and the unemployment and other benefits it ends, added up and divided by the job’s gross pay. That is Eurostat’s rate.
- WHAT IS KEPT: the rest, 100 minus the rate, is how much better off the person ends up, as a share of the job’s gross pay. It is the desk’s arithmetic on Eurostat’s rate, and it describes the model’s case only.
So 90.65% in Luxembourg is not a tax of 90% on wages, and it does not say that anyone stays out of work: it says that in the model, a single person who leaves benefit for a job at two thirds of the average wage ends up better off by 9.35% of that job’s gross pay.
One illustrative person, three amounts and one division, and a reading that forgets any of them says what the source does not.
One year on
Between 2024 and 2025 the rate fell in 14 member states, rose in 12 and did not move in Bulgaria. For the European Union as a whole it went from 74.0% to 74.5%.
The largest rise was in Italy, from 64.58% to 68.72%, a change of 4.14 points; the largest fall was in Slovenia, from 73.37% to 70.28%. France went from 73.61% to 75.13% and Spain from 77.65% to 76.12%. Luxembourg, at the top in both years, moved from 90.89% to 90.65%; Ireland, at the bottom in both, from 54.87% to 53.76%.
What these figures do not say
They do not say that work does not pay. The rate is below 100% in every member state, so in the model the job always leaves the person better off; what differs is by how much.
They say nothing about what people do. The rate is arithmetic on tax and benefit rules, not a measure of whether anyone takes a job or turns one down, and no cause, reform or behaviour is measured here.
They describe one household at one wage. A couple, a parent, a person on a higher or lower wage, or someone whose unemployment benefit has run out faces a different rate, and none of them is in this table. Eurostat publishes no 2025 figure for any country outside the European Union, and none of this is a forecast.
