For an illustrative employee paid €5,000 in ordinary gross salary per month, budget €85,603 in recurring statutory employer payroll for a full 2026 year under standard Greek private-sector assumptions. Greece requires 12 ordinary monthly salaries plus a one-month Christmas bonus, a half-month Easter bonus, and a half-month vacation allowance. Total annual gross pay is therefore €70,000—not €60,000—and employer social insurance adds €15,603.
That equals €7,133.58 per month when averaged across the year. It excludes conditional telework expenses, optional benefits, recruiting, equipment purchases, EOR or payroll fees, and one-time setup costs. The calculation also assumes an ordinary office role under the standard insurance package, with no collective-agreement or special-category adjustment.
Greece employer cost at a glance
The standard 22.29% employer rate and 13.87% employee rate apply to the majority of salaried private-sector employees, according to TEKA. The employee share is withheld from gross pay; it reduces take-home pay but is not another employer-funded cost.
Why Greece's 14-pay system changes the budget
A regular monthly salary in Greece is not the same as annual gross pay divided by 12. A full-year monthly-paid private-sector employee is generally entitled to:
- 12 ordinary monthly salaries;
- a Christmas bonus equal to one monthly salary;
- an Easter bonus equal to half a monthly salary; and
- a vacation allowance capped at half a monthly salary.
The Greek Ministry of Labour sets the Christmas and Easter amounts for a full qualifying period. Its holiday-allowance guidance confirms the half-month ceiling for monthly-paid employees.
Those payments create 14 salary-equivalent months of annual gross remuneration. The shorthand does not mean every employer issues exactly 14 bank transfers: the year contains 12 ordinary salaries, one full-month bonus, and two half-month payments. Start dates, termination dates, unpaid absences, and partial qualifying periods can reduce the statutory payments, so a part-year hire needs payroll-specific proration.
If an offer says “€60,000 annual salary,” confirm what the number means before budgeting. If it is the employee's total gross remuneration across all statutory payments, do not add two more salary months. If it means €5,000 for each of 12 ordinary months, the full-year gross obligation becomes €70,000 before employer contributions.
The 2026 calculation formula
For an employee whose ordinary monthly salary is at or below the 2026 insurable-earnings cap, the baseline is simple:
Annual gross remuneration = ordinary monthly gross salary × 14
Employer social insurance = annual gross remuneration × 22.29%
Recurring statutory employer payroll = annual gross remuneration + employer social insurance
The Ministry's contribution guidance confirms that Christmas and Easter bonuses and the vacation allowance are insurable. It also sets the maximum insurable earnings at €7,761.94 per month from January 1, 2026 and applies that cap separately to the bonuses and allowance.
For a cap-sensitive calculation, let:
M= ordinary monthly gross salary;C= €7,761.94; andr= 22.29%.
Then the full-year insurable base is:
13 × min(M, C) + 2 × min(0.5M, C)
The 13 full-month items are the 12 ordinary salaries plus the Christmas bonus. The two half-month items are the Easter bonus and vacation allowance. Apply the rate to each payroll payment and round to cents in the payroll run; multiplying the total base once can differ by a few cents.
Three illustrative hiring budgets
These roles and salaries are editorial examples, not Greek market averages. Each scenario assumes a full-year employee in an ordinary private-sector office role, fixed pay, the standard 22.29% employer rate, and no special insurance code or collective-agreement add-on.
The first two salaries are below the contribution cap, so every euro of gross remuneration in these examples is insurable. The engineering-director example shows why 22.29% should not be applied indefinitely. Its full-year insurable base is:
13 × €7,761.94 + 2 × €5,000 = €110,905.22
€110,905.22 × 22.29%, rounded by payment = €24,720.82
€140,000 gross + €24,720.82 = €164,720.82
The cap limits social-insurance contributions; it does not reduce the salary or statutory bonus obligations.
Add Greece's telework expense when the employee works from home
A home-telework arrangement can add a mandatory expense reimbursement outside salary and social insurance. The Ministry's telework guidance sets these minimum monthly components:
If the employee performs fewer than 22 days of home telework in a month, each applicable component is prorated at 1/22 per telework day. The reimbursement is an expense, not pay: it cannot replace salary and does not attract employer or employee social-insurance contributions.
For planning, add up to €336 for 12 full 22-day home-telework months when the employee bears all three costs. If the employer supplies equipment and directly covers communications, the home-workspace component alone would be up to €156 across 12 such months. Use actual telework days in payroll rather than treating either annual amount as automatic.
Costs to keep outside the statutory payroll total
The €85,603 example answers the recurring statutory payroll question. It is not the complete commercial cost of every hiring route.
Paid annual leave is already part of the 12 ordinary salaries. Do not add the same salary again as “vacation pay.” The separate vacation allowance is included in the 14-pay gross model above.
What can change the final Greece quote?
Before relying on the estimate, confirm these inputs:
- Salary convention. Is the offer stated as an ordinary monthly salary, a 12-month reference amount, or total annual gross across all statutory payments?
- Employment dates. Christmas, Easter, and vacation payments can be prorated for a part-year employee.
- Insurance classification. Role, industry, age, occupational risk, professional status, or a special fund can change the standard contribution package.
- Contribution cap. The €7,761.94 cap is a 2026 input and is adjusted over time. Refresh it for a later cost year.
- Collective agreement. A sector or enterprise agreement can set higher pay or additional allowances. The Ministry explains the collective-bargaining framework.
- Remote-work setup. Record the actual home-telework days and which communications or equipment costs the employer supplies directly.
- Benefits and variable pay. Add private insurance, meal or transport benefits, commission, overtime, equity, or other promised compensation separately.
- Hiring route. Direct employment, local payroll support, and an EOR carry different administration, service, banking, and setup costs.
The statutory minimum salary is €920 per month from April 1, 2026, according to the Ministry's minimum-wage page. It is a legal floor, not a market salary benchmark, and tenure or collective rules can require more.
Direct employment cost versus an EOR fee
The Greek salary, statutory payments, and employer contributions remain underlying employment costs whether you run payroll through your own local entity or use an Employer of Record. An EOR invoice also includes a service fee and may include benefits, FX, banking, onboarding, or other agreed charges.
Borderless currently lists EOR service starting from US$579 per month on its demo page. That published starting price is not included in any EUR total above and is not a Greece-specific quote. Confirm the actual fee, billing currency, benefits, telework treatment, employee classification, and one-time charges before approval.
If you want to move from this planning model to a route-specific figure, review the Greece EOR guide and request a Greece hiring estimate with the employee's monthly gross salary, start date, role, age, work location, telework pattern, benefits, variable pay, and applicable collective agreement.
Frequently asked questions
What does an employer pay on top of gross salary in Greece?
For the majority of salaried private-sector employees in the standard case, the employer pays 22.29% social insurance on insurable remuneration, subject to the €7,761.94 monthly cap in 2026. Home telework can also require a separate €13–€28 monthly expense reimbursement, prorated when there are fewer than 22 telework days. Special insurance categories, collective agreements, benefits, and service fees can add more.
Are Greece's Christmas, Easter, and vacation payments mandatory?
Yes for the private-sector monthly-paid employee model used here. A full qualifying year adds one monthly salary at Christmas, half a monthly salary at Easter, and a vacation allowance capped at half a monthly salary. Part-year service and certain absences require proration.
Are employee tax and social-security deductions an extra employer cost?
No. Employee income-tax withholding and the standard 13.87% employee social-insurance share reduce take-home pay but are withheld from gross remuneration. They should not be added again to employer cost.
How does the 2026 contribution cap work?
The maximum insurable earnings are €7,761.94 per month from January 1, 2026. The cap applies separately to each ordinary salary, the Christmas and Easter bonuses, and the vacation allowance. Do not model it as one annual ceiling equal to 12 times the monthly cap.
Is an EOR fee included in the employer-cost examples?
No. The examples show gross remuneration plus standard employer social insurance. Add the EOR or payroll fee, benefits, FX or banking charges, and any one-time onboarding costs as separate lines using the provider's quote.
What one-time costs are excluded?
The examples exclude recruiting, background checks, immigration, relocation, entity setup, registrations, legal work, equipment purchases, and onboarding. They also exclude contingent costs such as severance and variable costs such as overtime or commission.
