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Low-Tax Countries Are Generous Withal,
by Jeremy Hetherington-Gore, Tax-News.com, Hastings
Friday, December 14, 2007
Switzerland, Ireland and Luxembourg are in the group of OECD countries with
the highest unemployment benefits - more than 70% of average earnings; and in
Switzerland and Ireland low-paid people lose money by going back to work.
So says a new OECD report, Benefits and Wages, which provides a guide to how
governments are tackling the twin challenges of supporting unemployed people
while helping them back into work by tracking net benefit levels in individual
countries.
A decade ago, says the OECD, countries were making it increasingly difficult
to claim benefits: today many are actually cutting the level of benefits. Faced
with labour shortages and pressures on pension funding due to ageing populations,
one in three OECD countries has cut unemployment benefits in the last six years
with a view to encouraging unemployed people to find jobs.
A single long-term unemployed person in Germany receives about €4000 per
year less in benefits than they would have in 2001, and while in the Slovak
Republic they get €2200 less. By contrast, there have been increases in
benefit levels in Belgium and Ireland (€1300 and €1600) over the same
period.
Benefits and Wages also compares the level of benefits which unemployed people
typically receive with average after-tax earnings, taking into account different
family types and unemployment durations (“Net replacement rates”,
see figure below). Across most OECD countries the level fell to 55% in 2005,
from 59% in 2001. The Nordic countries are the most generous, with levels above
70%. In the United States, Greece, Turkey and Italy, where benefits for the
long-term unemployed are very low or non-existent, the index of generosity is
below 30%.
Unemployment benefits are only one of many factors which make people decide
whether or not to look for a job. Wages and Benefits cites other barriers –
high tax rates and low wages. When unemployed people start to work, on average
they lose 66 cents in increased taxation and lost benefits for every €1
or $1 they earn. And a lone parent, working full time but earning the minimum
wage, would still be below the poverty threshold in most countries.
The report also notes the need for high-quality affordable childcare which
allows parents to reap financial advantage from working outside the home. Childcare
costs typically consume more than a third of family’s incomes in Canada,
Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
In one third of OECD countries - Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France,
Iceland, Ireland, Korea, New Zealand, the Slovak Republic, Switzerland and United
Kingdom - lone parents may see no financial gain from low-wage employment.
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