Minimum Wage in Greece (2026)

Key numbers at a glance

Greece sets its minimum wage by government decision after consultation with social partners, with increases announced each spring. Figures below are gross, per Eurostat (earn_mw_cur), the Ministry of Labour and Eurofound. The unweighted average of the 22 EU national minimums is about €1,379 a month in mid-2026, so Greece’s rate sits roughly 22% below that benchmark.

Minimum wage in Greece: the rate

There is no automatic formula: the Labour Ministry consults unions and employers, and the government fixes the national minimum wage by ministerial decision, binding on all private employment. Since 2023 the increases have been announced personally by the prime minister as flagship cost-of-living measures, with a declared trajectory — €780 (2023), €830 (April 2024), €880 (April 2025), €920 (April 2026) — and a public commitment to €950 by 2027. The Greek system expresses the minimum as a monthly amount paid across 14 instalments (12 months plus Christmas, Easter and holiday bonuses), so Eurostat's cross-country table annualises it to about €1,073 a month; the direct annual sum is €12,880 at the 2026 rate. Sectoral arbitration awards must respect the national floor, and the law prohibits offsetting tips against it.

The crisis years cut the Greek minimum by more than a fifth in two steps (2012–13) — the defining adjustment of the memoranda era, from €876 pre-crisis down to €683.76 gross before the long freeze. Recovery began only in 2018–19 (€718, then €758), paused through the pandemic, then accelerated with the political cycle. Greece's return to €920/€1,073 in 2026 restores the nominal floor above its pre-crisis peak for the first time — though in real terms the recovery is still incomplete, and Greek union density and collective agreement coverage remain far below the pre-2011 system, where extension mechanisms covered most of the economy. Coverage today: an estimated 15–20% of employees earn the minimum or within 5% of it.

The monthly rate assumes a six-day, 40-hour week distribution used in the national general collective agreement (a five-day distribution yields a lower daily equivalent), and the 14-payment structure means each instalment is €920 with the extras tied to Christmas, Easter and annual leave. Enforcement sits with the Labour Inspectorate (SEPE), which prioritises tourism, food service and delivery; undeclared and under-declared work remains the main compliance challenge, and the 2026 round came with spot-check intensification in hospitality. There are no youth sub-rates today — the crisis-era youth discount (−10% for under-25s, later under-18s) was abolished in 2025, restoring a single rate for all adults.

Youth and trainee rates. No — the youth discount that survived the crisis years was abolished in 2025; the full €920 applies at every age from April 2026.

How Greece compares

In euro terms, Greece's statutory minimum is €1,073 a month gross. Greece sits in Eurostat's middle band (€1,000–1,500 a month). The table below sets the rate against neighbouring systems, the EU's highest and lowest statutory floors, and the EU average of roughly €1,379 (unweighted mean of the 22 national rates, Eurostat data for mid-2026).

The comparison to hold on to: Luxembourg tops the statutory table at €2,771 and Bulgaria closes it at €620 — a 4.5-to-1 spread that has been narrowing slowly as the east converges. Greece's position relative to that spread defines both its wage-cost competitiveness and its workers' purchasing power.

Purchasing power. Greek price levels are near the euro-area average, so the PPS picture mirrors the nominal one: Greece sits mid-table, above the Balkans and below the western and CEE leaders, per Eurostat's mid-2026 comparison. The real-terms gap to the 2010 floor has narrowed each spring since 2023 but had not fully closed as of 2026.

Where to verify the current rate

• Eurostat, Monthly minimum wages (earn_mw_cur)
• Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Greece
• Eurofound — minimum wage in Greece

Neighbouring countries and related pages

Wage floors change at every border. Compare Greece with Bulgaria and Cyprus — the full list of 30 country pages is on the by-country hub, and the pan-European tables are in our minimum wage comparison.