Working in Greece: fourteen months' pay, and a deemed income if you go self-employed

As an EU citizen you may work in Greece without a permit. What you do need to know is how a Greek employment contract is put together, because on two points it differs enough to misjudge an offer.

Compare annual amounts, not monthly amounts

Besides twelve monthly salaries, Greek contracts also have a thirteenth and a fourteenth month: a Christmas bonus, an Easter bonus and a holiday allowance. Whoever puts a Greek monthly amount next to a Dutch monthly amount is therefore comparing unevenly — the Greek annual amount is proportionally higher than the payslip suggests.

That said: the wage level in Greece is well below the Dutch one, and that difference is larger than the difference in cost of living in the big cities. Athens by now asks almost Dutch rents. Work through the household budget honestly before you make a job the reason for the move.

The registration: your employer does e-EFKA

If you take up employment, your employer registers you with e-EFKA, the national social security institution. Your contributions run through the payslip and you don't have to do anything for that yourself except supply your AMKA — the social security number you get at a KEP or e-EFKA.

With that registration you are immediately insured for healthcare via EOPYY, so for working people the S1 form from the CAK doesn't come into it. See healthcare in Greece for the difference.

The tax brackets climb quickly

Greek income tax has six steps:

Income	Rate
up to € 10,000	9%
€ 10,001 – € 20,000	20%
€ 20,001 – € 30,000	26%
€ 30,001 – € 40,000	34%
€ 40,000.01 – € 60,000	39%
above € 60,000	44%

This table applies from tax year 2026 and replaced a steeper one: up to and including 2025 it ran from 9% via 22%, 28% and 36% straight to 44% above € 40,000. The reform took two percentage points out of the middle brackets and inserted an intermediate bracket of 39%, so that the top rate only starts above € 60,000.

Two things the table doesn't show. Below € 40,000 the rates depend on the number of children — with four or more children the rate in the first two brackets can come out at 0%. Above € 40,000 family composition no longer matters. And there is a tax reduction of € 777, which itself also moves with the number of children.

The jump from 9% to 20% still comes early, and that remains the point: for middle incomes Greece is fiscally not the low-tax country the 7% scheme for pensioners suggests — that scheme applies only to foreign income, not to what you earn in Greece.

Going self-employed: the deemed income

This is the point that surprises Dutch freelancers. For the self-employed, the Greek tax authority assumes you earn at least the minimum wage, regardless of what you actually invoice. That is a deemed income you can only get out from under with evidence — and it means a quiet first year can still land you an assessment.

On top of that you pay your EFKA contributions yourself, in fixed classes that you choose: a higher class means a higher contribution and later a higher pension. Those contributions keep running whether you have turnover or not.

Factor both in before you start here as a freelancer. It is no reason not to do it, but it is a fixed burden with no equivalent in the Netherlands.

Practical

Your qualifications are in principle recognised within the EU, but for regulated professions — healthcare, education, legal — there is a recognition procedure. And the real obstacle is usually not your qualification but the language: outside the international companies and the tourism sector, Greek is the working language, and every employment contract and every payslip is in Greek.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but applied to your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines monitored. See the whole journey to Greece.