How expensive is work(ing) in a cross-country comparison – for employees and employers? How does Austria compare with the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe? Where are the ancillary wage costs for companies particularly high? And where do employees retain the highest net amount of their salary or wages, after deductions? A recent study conducted by the TPA Group & Kienbaum provides answers to these questions.
In which Country employees retain the highest net amount of their salary or wages?
What is left after the deduction of social security and payroll tax, in the account?
- Austria is – unsurprisingly – always in first place by a wide margin in terms of total costs.
- This is followed by Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia for all groups of persons – all three are direct neighbours of Austria.
- The total costs of Poland, Croatia and Hungary are in the “midfield”.
- Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria have low total costs (the ranking varies depending on the group of persons).
- Albania has the lowest total costs for all groups of persons.
- It is striking that the personnel costs in the non-EU countries are comparatively low. Furthermore: Those countries that joined the EU earlier (Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary) have higher costs than the countries that joined the EU later (Romania, Bulgaria).
- In other words, personnel costs are definitely lower in South-Eastern Europe.
How expensive is work? CEE countries under examination
The current study was conducted 2022 by TPA partners & tax advisor Dr. Wolfgang Hoefle, SEE-region expert Thomas Haneder and TPA Group partner Klaus Bauer-Mitterlehner.
