Where in Europe can you earn the most for the same job?

Migrating for a better future often comes with a huge headache: finding out where the best offers are, such as who gives the best salaries, what the cost of living is like, and so on.

In 2021, half of the 3.7 million people who moved to the EU did so for financial and family reasons, both from within and outside the bloc.

When researching where is best to move, gross salary figures for job offers can often be misleading (unless you're a fearless accountant with a knack for working out tax), especially if the destination is somewhere like Denmark where workers face one of the highest tax burdens in the EU.

According to Eurostat, the average annual wages (for a single person) ranged from €81,818 in Switzerland down to €15,335 in Greece in 2022.

To see how your take-home pay can vary significantly based on where you might choose to live, we analysed the competitiveness of salaries for five popular jobs in the Eurozone countries, UK, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, and Iceland.

Due to the complexity and variety of the tax systems across Europe, we are focusing on the average single worker and examining the final figure when the average personal income tax and social security contributions are taken off the gross salary. The all-in rate, which includes these two deductions, is based on 2022 data provided by the OECD.

If you decide to crunch the numbers yourself, you will find two types of income tax rates: the effective and the marginal tax rate. The latter is often more than 40% in Europe, with hair-raising examples seen in Denmark (55.5%), France (55.2%), and Austria (55%).

This rate, also called the ‘top statutory personal income tax rate’, applies to the share of income that falls into the highest tax bracket in progressive