Benefits and Wages: OECD Indicators

Bookmark this page: www.oecd.org/els/social/workincentives

Results in this series show how social and fiscal policies affect working and unemployed individuals and their families. Unemployment benefits and related out-of-work support help prevent those without work from falling into poverty but can at the same time reduce the incentive to work; this is one of the main dilemmas of social policy. A range of innovative policy measures aim at making work pay while maintaining adequate incomes for those unable to find a job. Benefits and Wages analyses policies in this area and calculates their overall impact on the incomes available to individual families. It compares levels of safety-net benefits across countries, shows how much people have to earn in order to escape poverty, and how much they gain from taking a job.

What's new ?

The 2007 edition of Benefits and Wages was launched in December 2007. It includes a special chapter on the cost of childcare. See press release "Encouraging employment - OECD countries balance benefits, wages and taxes".

What would your income be if you became unemployed? What are your financial incentives to work? A new interactive tool to calculate benefit entitlements and tax burdens is now available:

Publications:

(click on the links below to access summaries, key results and charts, and information on how to obtain or browse the publication)

The fifth edition of the series Benefits and Wages: OECD Indicators” (formerly entitled Benefit Systems and Work Incentives) that started in 1998. Also available a  summary of chapters including  selection of tables & charts. See press release. Benefits and Wages 2007 is available from: SourceOECD for subscribing institutions and many libraries OECD Online Bookshop for non-subscribers Government officials can go to OLISnet, under "Publication locator" Password-protected web site for accredited journalists

Statistics:

• Tax-Benefit Calculator
  Interactive tool to simulate household net incomes in and out of work situations
  
• Main Tax-Benefit indicators
  Net replacement rates (NRRs 2001-2005) and gross replacement rates (GRRs 1961-2005)
• Country-specific files
  The analyses draw on detailed country-specific information about tax and benefit systems. These also contain illustrations of how net incomes are calculated in each country
• OECD Tax-Benefit Models
  The models used for computing tax and benefit results in this publication are now available on an “as-is” basis to those interested in using them for research purposes.

For further information, please contact social.contact@oecd.org.

Further statistics by the OECD Social Policy Division: www.oecd.org/els/social/statistics.