Average Full-Time Greek Salary Exceeds €1,500 Ahead of Target

The average full-time salary in Greece’s private sector exceeded €1,500 in 2025, reaching €1,516, a year earlier than the government’s original target, according to data from the annual ERGANI employment report.

Minister of Labour and Social Security Niki Kerameos announced the figures in a social media post, citing a broad shift of hundreds of thousands of workers into higher pay brackets. She said the increase reflects sustained improvements in employment quality and income levels.

Kerameos also confirmed that unemployment currently stands at 7.5%. She said this figure reflects the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs, the strongest employment growth among OECD countries, and steady gains in full-time employment and wages.

According to the minister, Greece has created 563,000 new jobs since 2019. She noted that eight out of ten employees now work in full-time positions, while wages continue to rise across the labour market. The average salary for full-time and part-time employment combined reached €1,362, while nearly two in three wage earners now receive more than €1,000 per month.

Kerameos said the government will continue implementing policies aimed at creating more jobs with higher pay for all workers.

Data from the ERGANI report show that the average private-sector full-time salary increased from €1,478 in 2024 to €1,516 in 2025. Full-time employment accounted for 78.5% of total jobs, marking a rise of 2.1 percentage points over the year.

The report also shows that 280,000 employees moved into salary brackets above €1,000 in 2025 compared with 2024, confirming a broad-based and sustained improvement in incomes rather than gains limited to higher earners.

Nearly two-thirds of private-sector employees, or 1.56 million workers, now earn more than €1,000 per month. In 2019, only 36.3% of workers—around 720,000 people—reached that level. Over six years, the number of private-sector employees earning more than €1,000 rose by 842,000, more than doubling despite the economic impact of the pandemic.

The two largest salary groups now include workers earning between €1,001 and €1,200 and those earning between €1,201 and €1,500, totalling 992,000 employees and reflecting the expansion of middle-income earners. In contrast, the largest salary groups in 2019 consisted of workers earning below €500 and those earning between €501 and €600.

Government sources said lower wage brackets have continued to shrink since 2019. Employees earning less than €1,000 declined by nearly 209,000 between 2024 and 2025, while the number of workers earning up to €500 fell by more than 223,000 over six years, representing a 56% decrease.

Officials attributed the trend to the steady decline of part-time employment, rising wages, and strong growth in salaried work. Between December 2019 and December 2025, the private sector created more than 563,000 jobs, in line with Hellenic Statistical Authority data showing unemployment fell to 7.5% in December 2025, the lowest level since May 2008.