Project management is one of the more common senior individual contributor roles across every developed economy, and one where salary depends heavily on sector. A construction project manager and a technology project manager are paid differently in the same country.
What follows uses a typical mid-career figure for each country, weighted towards technology and professional services, and applies each country's deduction rules on a single person basis.
The ranking after tax
Federal deductions only; state or provincial tax is charged on top. † Foreign employees pay no CPF, so a local resident keeps less. ‡ Cantonal tax is an estimated average; the real figure depends on the commune. § Excludes the 13th and 14th salary payments, which are taxed at 6%. Converted at rates current when this guide was written.
Reading the percentage column
The percentage kept is the more useful column for anyone whose salary differs from the assumption used here, because it scales. At these income levels three distinct groups emerge.
- Above three quarters kept: the United States on federal deductions alone, Canada on federal deductions alone, Australia, Singapore for a foreign employee, and New Zealand.
- Around seventy percent: Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.
- Below two thirds: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg at this level, and France.
- The caveat on the first group is that state or provincial tax, health insurance and compulsory pension contributions are excluded from several of them.
Where the marginal rate starts to matter
At project management salaries, most European employees are above the point where the marginal deduction exceeds forty percent, which changes what a raise is worth and makes non-cash compensation disproportionately valuable.
The crossover points by country are set out in where the 40% line falls. Above that line, pension contributions, salary sacrifice arrangements and employer funded benefits deliver more than an equivalent increase in salary would.
The contribution ceiling effect
Several countries stop charging social contributions above a ceiling, and project management salaries are frequently close to those ceilings.
- Germany stops health and long term care contributions at 66,150 euros and pension and unemployment at 90,600. A salary in that range keeps more of each additional euro than the headline rates suggest.
- Austria stops contributions at 72,840 euros.
- Spain stops at around 56,644 euros, which is why Spanish take-home at this level compares better than expected.
- Ireland and Sweden apply no ceiling at all, so the contribution continues on every euro.
- The United States stops Social Security at the wage base but continues Medicare indefinitely. See FICA explained.
The general mechanism is described in contribution ceilings explained.
What is not in the figures
Bonus and variable pay are excluded, and they are a meaningful share of project management compensation in several sectors. Where a bonus is a large proportion of the package, the way it is taxed matters as much as the base salary, and it varies considerably: Austria taxes the thirteenth and fourteenth payments at six percent while most countries tax a bonus as ordinary income.
The bonus treatment is covered in why bonuses are taxed so heavily and the Austrian exception in Austria's 13th and 14th salaries.
Related: Software Engineers Salary After Tax