What an Employee Costs Across Europe
A salary comparison answers what the employee keeps. It does not answer what the hire costs, and the two are set independently: Spain takes 6.5% from the employee and 30.6% from the employer, so a country can be hard on one side and cheap on the other.
The sharper question is the one an employer-of-record quote poses: not “what does this salary cost” but “what does it cost to put a given amount in this person's account?” Hold the take-home constant and the countries reorder themselves, because the distance between gross and net is different in every one. Both views are below, on 2026 rules.
The same take-home costs 69.9% more in Italy than in Bulgaria
Putting €48,000 a year in someone's account costs an employer €62,359 in Bulgaria and €105,956 in Italy — €43,597 a year apart for a person who is paid exactly the same either way.
And the salary you quote is not the cost you carry. Czechia needs the #4 lowest gross of the fifteen but ranks #8 on total cost. Poland needs the #14 lowest gross of the fifteen but ranks #10 on total cost.
Two ways to ask the question
Every country below puts €48,000 a year in the employee's account. What changes is the gross needed to get there and what the whole thing costs — the question behind an employer-of-record quote.
| Country | Gross needed | Total cost | Employer adds | Reaches employee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulgaria | €57,137 | €62,359 | 9.1% | 77.0% |
| Switzerland | €58,225CHF 54,732 | €64,445CHF 60,579 | 10.7% | 74.5% |
| Malta | €63,859 | €66,855 | 4.7% | 71.8% |
| United Kingdom | €61,089£51,315 | €69,360£58,262 | 13.5% | 69.2% |
| Ireland | €65,829 | €73,259 | 11.3% | 65.5% |
| Cyprus | €64,370 | €74,283 | 15.4% | 64.6% |
| Netherlands | €67,887 | €80,100 | 18.0% | 59.9% |
| Czechia | €63,728CZK 1,605,933 | €85,267CZK 2,148,739 | 33.8% | 56.3% |
| Spain | €71,155 | €89,918 | 26.4% | 53.4% |
| Poland | €79,399PLN 337,444 | €93,561PLN 397,635 | 17.8% | 51.3% |
| Germany | €79,024 | €95,905 | 21.4% | 50.0% |
| Greece | €78,948 | €96,151 | 21.8% | 49.9% |
| Portugal | €79,013 | €97,779 | 23.8% | 49.1% |
| France | €71,857 | €102,036 | 42.0% | 47.0% |
| Italy | €81,505 | €105,956 | 30.0% | 45.3% |
Amounts are shown in EUR so the ranking can be read down the column, with each country's own currency underneath where it differs. Single employee, no children, 2026 statutory rates. Occupational-accident contributions vary by industry and a statutory or representative rate is used; Switzerland is priced in Zürich. Non-euro amounts are converted at dated reference rates for ranking only.
Why the two rankings disagree
The employee's deduction and the employer's contribution are separate decisions in every system, and countries make them differently. A state can fund itself mostly from the payslip, mostly from the employer, or from income tax, and the visible result is the same salary costing wildly different amounts.
It matters most when the two are compared without being separated. A budget built on gross salary understates the cost of a Czech or French hire and overstates a Maltese one, and the gap is large enough to change which country a role opens in.
What this does not include
Payroll cost only. Setting up an entity, employer-of-record fees, mandatory benefits in kind, notice periods, severance and the local cost of recruiting are all real and none of them are here.
Nor is it a judgement about where to hire. It is the one number that is usually guessed, stated precisely, so the rest of the decision can be made on the things that actually differ.
Frequently asked questions
- What counts as the cost of employing someone?
- The gross salary plus everything the employer pays on top of it — social security, pension, unemployment and accident contributions, and any payroll levies. It is not the same as the gross, and in some countries it is a third higher.
- Why is the cheapest country to hire in not the best country to be hired in?
- Because the employee's deduction and the employer's contribution are set separately. Spain takes only 6.50% from the employee and 30.65% from the employer; Czechia is generous to the employee and charges the employer 33.8%. A country can be good for one side and expensive for the other.
- Are these figures exact?
- They are computed from each country's statutory 2026 rates rather than averaged. Two components are necessarily approximate and we say so where they apply: occupational-accident contributions vary by industry, and a few countries have employer rates that differ by company size or contract type.
- Does this include the cost of actually employing someone there?
- No. This is payroll cost only. Setting up an entity, an employer-of-record fee, statutory benefits in kind, notice periods and severance are all real and none of them are modelled here.
- Can I get these figures through an API?
- Yes. POST /compare returns employer social security and total employer cost for every country in one call, in each country's own currency and converted to a display currency. That is the same call this page is built from.
Pricing hires across Europe in your own product?
One call to POST /compare returns employer social security and total employer cost for every country we cover, in native currency and converted. It is the same call this page is built from — HR, payroll, relocation and employer-of-record platforms use it directly.