Down and Out in Brussels

If you're a single white male:

BRUSSELS - A single Belgian worker without children hands over 55.7 percent of what he costs his employer to the tax authority and social security.

This is the highest tax rate for single, childless workers in the developed world. Despite efforts to lower tax on wages this has not decreased over the past three years. This is contained in figures from the Organisation for Eocnomic Cooperation and Development for 2006.

This so-called tax wedge comes to above 50 percent in only three other countries: Germany, Hungary, and France. The average for the 30 OECD countries is 37.5 percent.