Social security contributions by country: what comes out of your pay in 2026

Employee contribution rates at a glance

The table shows the standard employee share for a regular employee in 2026. Employer contributions are paid on top and do not come out of your pay, but they are part of what you cost your employer, which matters when you compare an employee offer with a contract rate.

North America: the US and Canada

United States

US employees pay FICA: 6.2% for Social Security on wages up to the 2026 contribution and benefit base of US$184,500, and 1.45% for Medicare on all wages, with the employer matching both. Employers must also withhold an Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% on wages above US$200,000 in a calendar year, which the employer does not match. The IRS overview of Social Security and Medicare withholding explains the rules. Self-employed people pay both halves: 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare.

Canada

Outside Quebec, employees contribute 5.95% to the Canada Pension Plan on earnings between a C$3,500 basic exemption and the 2026 maximum pensionable earnings of C$74,600, a maximum of C$4,230.45. A second additional contribution (CPP2) of 4% applies between C$74,600 and C$85,000, up to C$416. Employment Insurance premiums are 1.63% of insurable earnings up to C$68,900, a maximum of C$1,123.07. Quebec runs its own pension plan and has a lower EI rate.

Europe: the UK and Germany

United Kingdom

For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, HMRC’s rates and thresholds for employers set employee Class 1 National Insurance at 0% up to the primary threshold of £12,570 a year, 8% between £12,570 and the upper earnings limit of £50,270, and 2% on everything above. Employers pay 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year. Because the employee rate falls to 2% above £50,270, National Insurance takes a smaller share of pay as salaries rise, the opposite of income tax.

Germany

Germany splits four insurances roughly equally between employer and employee. The employee share in 2026 is 9.3% for pension insurance and 1.3% for unemployment insurance, charged on pay up to €8,450 a month, plus 7.3% for health insurance with half of the fund’s additional rate and 1.8% for long-term care, charged on pay up to €5,812.50 a month. Those ceilings are set in the 2026 social insurance thresholds regulation. Each health fund sets its own additional rate; the government’s average additional rate for 2026 is 2.9%, so the typical employee share comes to about 21.15%. Childless employees aged 23 or over pay an extra 0.6% for long-term care, and parents of two or more children under 25 pay less.

Asia-Pacific: the Philippines, Singapore and Australia

Philippines

Three agencies take a share of a Philippine payslip. The Social Security System charges 15% of the monthly salary credit, which runs from ₱5,000 to ₱35,000: 5% from the employee and 10% from the employer, with the part above ₱20,000 going to the MySSS Pension Booster savings account. PhilHealth charges 5% of monthly basic salary between a ₱10,000 floor and a ₱100,000 ceiling, split equally. Pag-IBIG takes 2% from each side on a maximum fund salary of ₱10,000, so ₱200 a month from the employee.

Singapore

Citizens and permanent residents aged 55 and below contribute 20% of monthly wages to the Central Provident Fund, and their employer adds 17%. From 1 January 2026 the CPF ordinary wage ceiling rose to S$8,000 a month, and the annual wage ceiling stays at S$102,000. Rates are lower for older workers: 12.5% from the employee between ages 55 and 65 in 2026. CPF is personal savings for housing, healthcare and retirement rather than a pooled insurance, and foreigners on employment passes do not contribute.

Australia

Australia has no employee social security deduction. Instead, the employer must pay a super guarantee of 12% of qualifying earnings into the employee’s superannuation fund, on top of salary, up to a maximum contribution base of A$270,830 for 2026–27. The Medicare levy, normally 2% of taxable income, is collected with income tax. Check whether an Australian offer is quoted as a “package” that includes super or as a base salary plus super.

Worked examples: what employees actually pay

The table applies the 2026 rules above to two salaries in each country: a mid-range salary and a high one. It shows the standard employee deduction only, before income tax, and assumes the default category, no special exemptions and, for Germany, a parent paying the average health-fund rate.

Two patterns stand out. First, caps make social security regressive at the top: a US$250,000 earner pays a lower share than a US$80,000 earner, and a German on €120,000 pays about 6 percentage points less than one on €60,000. Second, the headline rate says little on its own. Germany’s deduction is large, but it buys health insurance that an American employee may pay for separately, and Singapore’s CPF stays in the employee’s own account.

To turn these into net pay, add income tax. Our take-home pay calculator estimates income tax by country, and the country pages for the US, UK, Philippines, Singapore and Australia explain what each model includes. Most of our models leave out social contributions, so subtract the figures above to get closer to a real payslip.

Remote, cross-border and self-employed: who pays what

• Usually the country where you work charges contributions, even if your employer is abroad. A foreign employer with no local entity often hires through an employer of record, which runs local payroll and deducts the local contributions.
• If you are sent abroad temporarily by your employer, an agreement may keep you in your home system. The US has totalization agreements with about 30 countries, including Canada, the UK, Germany, Japan and Australia, but not the Philippines, India or Singapore. A certificate of coverage proves the exemption.
• Inside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, EU social security coordination means you are insured in one country at a time, normally the one where you work. The UK’s rules for working abroad are on GOV.UK.
• Contractors and freelancers usually pay both halves. US self-employment tax is 15.3% up to the wage base, Canadian self-employed people pay up to C$8,460.90 in base CPP, and Philippine self-employed and voluntary SSS members and direct PhilHealth contributors pay the full rate themselves. Price this into your rate; see salary vs contractor pay and freelancer vs full-time remote employee.

Social security residence is decided separately from income tax residence, so you can owe tax in one country and contributions in another. For the tax side, see the 183-day rule and tax residency.

Using this when you compare offers

1. Convert each gross offer to annual pay in its own currency, including any 13th-month or 14th-month payments.
2. Subtract the employee contributions for that country, using the caps, and then income tax.
3. Add back what the contributions buy that you would otherwise pay for, such as health insurance in Germany or the Philippines, and count retirement savings like CPF or Australian super as deferred pay.
4. Only then convert to one currency and adjust for cost of living.

The full method is in comparing take-home pay across countries, and reading a payslip shows where each deduction appears. For salary levels by role, start from the country pages for Germany, Canada or the Philippines.