Greeks Work Long Hours but Paid Little EU Statistics Show

Greeks work long hours but their pay is low compared with their EU counterparts, recently released statistics by Eurostat reveal.

In 2023, 7.1 percent of employed people in the EU worked long hours in their main job. Long working hours refer to those workers who usually spend 49 hours or more per week at work.

Across the EU countries, Greece had the highest share of workers with long hours (11.6 percent), followed by Cyprus (10.4 percent) and France (10.1 percent). Meanwhile, the lowest rates were recorded in Bulgaria (0.4 percent), Lithuania and Latvia (1.1 percent each).

A higher rate of self-employed people worked long hours (29.3 percent of total self-employed people) compared with employees (3.6 percent of total employees).

Long working hours were more common among skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers (27.5 percent of all skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers) and managers (21.9 percent).

All other occupational groups, as defined by the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) averaged up to 7.3 percent of total self-employed people) compared with employees (3.6 percent of total employees).

Greeks paid little for long hours of work

A recent survey by Eurostat also found that Greeks despite working long hours are paid relatively little compared to the rest of the EU.

Greece remained in the lowest one-third of 26 European states in terms of salaries for 2023, coming in at 20th place.

The Benelux Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, one of Europe’s hubs for finance, is in first place, with an average hourly rate of 47 euros. Luxembourg also has the highest per capita income in the world.

Denmark follows with 42 euros per hour, then Norway (41.7), non-EU Iceland (39.5) and Belgium (36.3).

Greece’s 20th place is linked with an average hourly wage of 12.6 euros.

Behind Greece are Slovakia (12.5), Poland (11.9), Hungary (11), Latvia (10.7) and Romania (10.4). The last place is held by Bulgaria, where the average hourly wage is 8.4 euros.

OECD data

According to the latest OECD data, Greece has the 7th highest average working time among the 38 countries of the Organization but is also 3rd from the bottom in average wages.

According to the same data, Greece ranks 34th – out of 35 countries – with an average weekly salary in Greece estimated at 456.31 euros, with an average working week of 36.27 hours; the average hourly wage in Greece is 12.58 euros. Mexico is the only OECD country with a lower hourly wage.

In terms of working hours, only four of the 35 have longer working hours per week than Greece: Israel (36.38 hours), South Korea (36.56 hours), Chile (37.75 hours) and Mexico (42.81 hours).

The highest weekly wage is recorded in Iceland, followed by Luxemburg, the OECD report said.

Raising the average Greek salary is one of the main promises that PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis made in his successful re-election bid.

In March Mitsotakis announced an increase of €50 ($53.9) a month to the country’s minimum wage for employees, lifting the amount to €830 from €780.

The decision that took effect from April 1st will relieve workers “without affecting the strength of the economy and the competitiveness of businesses,” Mitsotakis said.

The wage hike affects approximately 600,000 workers.