Taxes and not just: Do you know how much of the salary doesn't even fall on the bill?

Os workers in Portugal never see around 21.8% of the salary, since this portion is related to taxes and other deductions. This percentage is still below the EU average of 29.1%.

The figures were released by Euronews Business, which used Eurostat data to calculate the net annual income as a percentage of the gross wage to reach an available income ratio. Then, he calculated the part of the gross wage that is absorbed by taxes and other deductions, in order to realize how much workers actually take home. 

It should be noted that the percentage for taxes and deductions varies according to marital status and dependent children, but the analysis of Euronews Business focuses mainly on a single person without children.

Accounts made..

Data from the EU statistical office of 2025, released in mid 2026, show that the share of gross wage for taxes and other deductions varies widely between Member States.

For a single person without children who earns the average wage, it ranges from 15.1% in Cyprus to 41.5% in Romania, with the EU average being 29.1%.

For example, in the EU average annual gross wage is eur 37,958, while net income is EUR 26.929. This means that eur 11.029 is channelled into taxes and other deductions.

It should also be stressed that having dependent children can significantly reduce the share of the gross wage for taxes and other deductions, especially for couples with only one income. For this type of aggregate, the percentage varies from -3.3 % in Greece to 33.4 % in Romania.

The same means of communication shows that the value is also negative in Poland (-0.6 %), which means that net income exceeds gross wage thanks to family allowances and tax refunds.

Average wage only takes off the minimum if there is increased productivity

The minimum wage and the average wage are getting closer, with a phenomenon of wage compression, which could be avoided with an increase in productivity, consider economists heard by Lusa, who advocate policies to stimulate activity.

According to an analysis by Banco de Portugal (BdP), the Kaitz index, which measures the ratio between the minimum wage and the median wage, rose to 91% in 2025, compared to 87% in 2019. 

According to economist Pedro Braz Teixeira, the “original sin” of this phenomenon was that the minimum wage was no longer indexed for social support in 2007 and the increase in this value no longer had such a high impact on public spending.

Thus, from 2007, with the creation of the Social Support Index (IAS), governments began to accept “very significant increases in salary”.

The economist argues that “it is necessary that minimum wage increases become more aligned with productivity increases”, while there should also be “productivity promotion policies, which have grown very little.”.