Romania's taxes on labour are the highest in the European Union.
Industry & EmploymentRomania
- Omissions
- The 'highest in the EU' ranking is metric-specific: it applies to the employee-side share of gross salary (income tax plus employee social security contributions) for single workers without children, as computed by the Tax Foundation. Under the OECD's total tax wedge measure (employer + employee contributions as a share of total labour costs), Belgium is the highest in the EU at 52.6% in 2024, followed by Germany (47.9%), France (47.2%) and Italy (47.1%); Romania is not the highest.
- Romania's high employee-side burden results from the 2018 reform that shifted almost the entire social security contribution burden from employers to employees (European Commission, 2019), which inflates the employee-side share while total labour costs remain comparatively moderate.
- The Tax Foundation figure refers to 2025 data (published in 2026); the OECD Taxing Wages 2025 edition reports 2024 data. Both were available before the 2026-07-06 session date.
- The claim was supported mainly by a think-tank analysis (Tax Foundation) and press coverage citing it; the official OECD source gives a different ranking for the broader tax wedge.
- Sources
- PrimaryOECD — Taxing Wages 2025In 2024, the largest tax wedge for this household type [single worker, no children, average wage] was observed in Belgium (52.6%), Germany (47.9%), France (47.2%), Italy (47.1%) and [others].
- SecondaryTax Foundation — Tax Burden on Labor in Europe, 2026On average, across the European Union and the United Kingdom, single, average-wage workers paid 38.9 percent of their labor compensation in taxes in 2025. Romania leads the EU with 41.5% of average gross pay taken in taxes and deductions for single workers without children.
- SecondaryMSN News — 'Romania tops EU tax burden list for single workers'Romania leads the EU with 41.5% of average gross pay taken in taxes and deductions for single workers without children.
- SecondaryEuropean Commission, DG ECFIN — 'Labour Taxation in Romania: Revised, but not changed' (European Economy Brief 050)In 2018 the structure of labour taxation in Romania changed substantially: the social security contributions (SSC) burden shifted almost entirely to employees.