What workers actually keep after tax across 22 countries, backed by real figures. No padding, and no averages stripped of context.
We put one €60,000 salary through all 22 tax systems here. The range is wide: €3,071 a month in Belgium against €4,131 in a no-tax US state, some €12,700 apart over a year. And the Nordics are nowhere near the bottom.
Read guide →A NZ nurse on NZD 75,000 keeps NZD 4,720 a month; an Australian nurse on AUD 80,000 keeps AUD 5,580. The gap is real, and the tax systems are not different enough to close it. An honest Oceania comparison.
Read guide →Finland's gaming cluster (Supercell, Rovio, Remedy) pays 20-30% over the general tech baseline. A senior game engineer on €90,000 in Helsinki nets about €4,400 a month after TyEL and income tax. Real 2026 numbers.
Read guide →Luxembourg's SSM stands at €2,570 a month for qualified workers, the EU's highest floor. A median software engineer nets €4,365 a month. Frontaliers, EU-institution pay and the fund-industry premium, all laid out.
Read guide →An Israeli senior engineer on ₪400,000 gross keeps ₪20,375 a month. Factor in section 102 RSUs taxed at 25% capital gains and the picture shifts sharply. A real 2026 mas hachnasa and bituach leumi breakdown.
Read guide →A Tokyo senior engineer on ¥10,000,000 works out to €62,500 at 2026 rates, down from €83,333 in 2020. After shakai hoken and taxes, take-home is about €2,615 a month. The weak yen has reshaped Japan's pull for talent.
Read guide →Italy's impatriati law frees 50% of employment income from tax for up to five years. On €80,000 gross, qualifying workers net €4,680 a month against €3,640 without it. Who qualifies in 2026, and what has changed.
Read guide →A Spanish nurse in Madrid earns €28,000-€34,000 gross, about €1,620 a month net. The same nurse in Frankfurt earns €49,000 gross, roughly €2,780 net. That gap is fuelling Spain's healthcare exodus.
Read guide →Denmark's top marginal rate reaches 55.9%. A software engineer on DKK 700,000 keeps DKK 28,630 a month, about €3,840. What the AM-bidrag plus state and municipal system really takes, and what it buys.
Read guide →Norway's sovereign wealth fund tops $1.7 trillion and its salaries rank among Europe's highest, yet a nurse on NOK 600,000 nets NOK 31,800 a month, about €2,720. High costs and trygdeavgift together explain the paradox.
Read guide →A Singaporean on SGD 120,000 puts 20% into CPF, leaving SGD 6,897 a month in cash. An EP-holding expat on the same salary takes home SGD 8,618. CPF is the single biggest local-versus-expat pay difference in Singapore.
Read guide →On €80,000 gross, a French employee keeps about €3,970 a month and a German one €4,045. Two high-tax reputations hide a near-tie, and a crossover at €70,000 that most people read backwards.
Read guide →On CHF 120,000, a Zug resident keeps CHF 7,910 a month and a Geneva resident CHF 6,468. Same salary, same job, different canton, a gap that compounds to CHF 17,000 a year.
Read guide →Sweden's top marginal rate is 52.3%, but the effective rate for most Stockholm professionals is 25-34%. What a software engineer, a nurse and a senior manager really net each month, and why the marginal figure misleads.
Read guide →The Dutch 30% ruling can save expat professionals €958 a month in Phase 1, but the 2024 reform tapered it to 30%, then 20%, then 10% over 60 months. Exactly what qualifying workers gain in 2026.
Read guide →USC is more than another tax band. On a €100,000 Irish salary, PAYE, USC and PRSI together take €36,174, leaving €5,319 a month. Every band, the pension-planning quirk, and the Dublin MNC salary reality.
Read guide →A Band 5 NHS nurse on £32,073 keeps £2,154 a month, not the £2,673 you get dividing gross by 12. Every deduction, what the pension really costs, and why London weighting stretches less than it looks.
Read guide →Between £100,000 and £125,140, the UK takes 60p of every extra pound you earn. It is not a glitch, it is the personal allowance taper. How it works, and how pension salary sacrifice cancels it out.
Read guide →At similar gross salaries, UK workers keep roughly 13% more a month than their German counterparts. The cause is not income tax, it is social contributions. We line up software engineers, nurses and high earners in both.
Read guide →Singapore's income tax tops out at 24%; the UK's reaches 45% before National Insurance. For mid-to-high earners the monthly take-home gap can be huge, though CPF, housing costs and what you give up all matter too.
Read guide →Belgium's OECD tax wedge hit 52.7% in 2025. A worker on €60,000 gross keeps around €3,071 a month after ONSS and income tax. Why the top rate starts at €46,000, and what Belgium gives back in return.
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