The OECD has built synthetic indicators of labour income tax progressivity, based on statutory tax schedules, over a wide income range.20 Focusing on a single wage earner (Figure 8, Panel A) shows that there is wide cross-country variation in the degree of progressivity of statutory schedules for personal income taxes and employees’ social security contributions. Progressivity at the higher end of the income distribution - i.e. income equal to 167% of the average wage - is strongest in Ireland, Sweden and Denmark. At the lower end of the income distribution - i.e. income equal to 67% of the average wage - tax schedule progressivity is highest in Hungary, Luxembourg and Belgium. Personal income tax schedules have generally become flatter over the past decades (Piketty and Saez, 2007, Sabirianova Peter et al, 2008).