Greece
Greece is a hotspot for remote talent, both local and international. If you’ve found someone there you’d like to hire, you’re in the right place. By the end of this page, you’ll know everything you need to know (literally) to start hiring remote talent in Greece. Shall we?
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
Euro (EUR)
EMPLOYER TAXES
22.54%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Greek
It’s the fastest way to hire globally
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Thera's locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It’s a lot cheaper
It costs just $0 to sign up for Thera, then $25 per month to hire your contractors with Thera. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
It’s more flexible for you & your team
Can be less risky than hiring employees
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
Some people want to be employees
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
You might not have as much control over your talent
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
Hiring in Greece can be notoriously difficult—but not when you know what you’re doing. If you want to hire remote talent in Greece, you have two options: Hire people as contractors, or hire them as employees.
Hire talent as contractors
Hire talent as employees
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Greece than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in Greece.
Employer tax
Employer Contributions
- 22.54%
Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Employees that are working 5 days a week are entitled to a minimum of 20 prorated days of leave per year at full pay. For each additional year of work, employees are entitled to an additional day of leave up to a total of 22 days.
- Employees with 10 years of service for the same employer or 12 years of service with any employer are entitled to 25 days’ leave per year.
- For 25 years of service or more, employees are entitled to 26 days’ leave. In addition, employees are entitled to an annual leave bonus equal to the pay for leave, with a maximum of half a salary.
Public Holidays
7 public holidays and 4 optional holidays.
Sick Days
In case of sick leaves, the employer is obliged to pay the employee: 13 days only in the 1st year and 25 days from the 2nd year onwards. The days are paid by both the employer and the EFKA.
Maternity Leave
Maternity leave – 119 calendar days. (Only the 1st month is paid by the employer the rest is paid by the EFKA). 56 calendar days should be taken before the childbirth date and the remaining 63 calendar days after the birth.
In addition to the maternity leave, 6-month leave is paid the minimum wage by the labor Employment Office (OAED).
Instead of receiving reduced daily working hours mothers may agree with their employers to receive an extra 3.5 months leave paid by the employer.
Paternity Leave
Fathers are permitted 2 days of paid leave after the birth of their children.
Parental Leave
2 days per childbirth paid by the employer.
Other Leave
Leave for children’s school grading: 4 working days for each child who is not older than 16 years old. This kind of leave may be used by one of the parents.
Elections leave: the duration is relating to the distance between the polling station and the workplace. Generally, is 1 to 3 working days.
Marriage Leave
5 working days.
Bereavement Leave
2 working days for the death of husband/wife, child, parents, brothers.
Termination Process
An indefinite employment agreement is considered to be employed with a probationary period for the first 12 months of the agreement, which may be terminated during the probationary period without notice and without severance pay unless otherwise agreed by the parties.
After the first 12 months, the employee cannot be terminated without prior written notice from the employer, which will take effect from the day after the employee is notified.
These provisions apply for all forms of dismissals, including collective dismissals for employees that are not workers. Terminating workers doesn’t require any notice.
A fixed-term contract can be terminated by the employee or the employer before the end date immediately without notice period for a ‘Significant reason’. Significant reason includes events during the employer-employee relation which make it impossible to continue the agreement in good faith. If a significant reason exists, the employer is not obliged to pay compensation.
Furthermore, article 40 of law 3986/2011 mentions that a fixed-term employment contract, which includes a term for early termination in accordance with requires severance calculation is automatically converted into an indefinite-term employment contract upon termination.
Notice Period
If the employment relationship is based on a fixed-term contract, it can be terminated immediately without notice by either the employee or employer. However, a reason (i.e. breach of contract, failure to comply with the terms of the contract, etc.) is given. If no reason is given, the employee is able to make claim in court and is able to receive compensation for the wages that would have been received until the contract expiry date.
If the employment contract is for an indefinite period, the length of the notice period depends on the length that the employee has been employed:
Number of Years: 1-2 years
Notice Period: 1 month
Number of Years: 2-5 years
Notice Period: 2 months
Number of Years: 5-10 years
Notice Period: 3 months
Number of Years: 10 years+
Notice Period: 4 months
Severance Pay
For non-workers with indefinite employment agreement the severance pay is calculated as follows:
Up to 1 year of service – no severance pay required
From one year of service – the severance changes according to the length of service and can be up to 12 months of severance.
Working Hours
Full Time employment is considered 40 hours weekly, and 8 hours daily.
Overtime
Extra Time (Iperergasia): The maximum time per day is 1 hour and is paid at a rate of 120% of the regular salary.
Overtime (Iperoria): The maximum time per day is 2 hours and 120 hours per year. These hours are paid at a rate of 140% of the regular salary. For more than 120 hours per year, approval from the Greek Labor of Ministry is required.
%5B1%5D.avif)
Run your global workforce on autopilot with Thera
Book a demo to get started.