Other nations with substantial increases last year were Portugal, where tax rates rose as the government followed a European-mandated austerity policy aimed at cutting budget deficits, and the Slovak Republic, which raised employer payroll taxes.

The O.E.C.D. said it thought countries should be changing their tax laws to encourage economic growth. “More needs to be done to shift the burden from labor to other types of taxes,” said Bert Brys, a senior tax economist at the organization’s Center for Tax Policy and Administration. He said environmental taxes and national sales taxes could be raised while taxes on wages were reduced, and he suggested that higher taxes on housing might be called for, partly to ward off new property price bubbles.

One policy that has been adopted by several euro zone countries is called “fiscal devaluation” by some analysts. The idea is that a country’s exports can be made more competitive by reducing labor costs, which can be done by reducing the employer’s share of payroll taxes. In such a case, the employee does not appear to be taking a wage cut, even though the employer’s costs decline. The effect, it is hoped, is similar to that of a currency devaluation, something that cannot happen within the euro zone.

In France, the O.E.C.D. said, payroll taxes paid by employers were cut to 28.7 percent of total labor costs in 2013, from 30.6 percent in 2010. That still left France with the highest employer tax rate of any country in the group. At the same time, income tax rates and employee payroll taxes were increased.