Greece tops EU list for highest labor tax burden

The European Commission’s 2026 Annual Taxation Report finds that Greece has the highest implicit tax rate on labour among EU members, reaching 44.8 % in 2024. This is well above the EU average of 37.1 % and ahead of Italy (43.9 %) and Belgium (40.7 %). The rate combines income tax, employee and employer social‑security contributions and other payroll levies, meaning that roughly €45 of every €100 of gross labour costs go to public coffers.

The report also notes that Greece scores low on capital‑income taxation, about ten percentage points beneath the EU mean, and that its share of indirect tax revenue, especially VAT, has risen faster than in other countries over the past decade. High effective tax rates and associated disincentives are flagged as major obstacles to employment, placing Greece alongside Portugal and Italy in the EU’s tax‑obstacle index.