Despite improvements in key labor market indicators and successive increases in the minimum wage in recent years, the purchasing power of workers in Greece remains significantly lower than pre-economic crisis levels, according to the annual report by the INE-GSEE.
The study notes that in 2025, the average annual nominal wage stood at 18,134 euros, up 3.9% from 2024 and 19.7% from 2019. However, despite this improvement, it remains 12% below the 2009 level and is still lower than the level in 2012, a year when the Greek economy was in a deep recession.
The picture is even more revealing in real terms. The average annual real wage stood at 14,998 euros in 2025, marking a marginal increase of 1.3% compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, it remains 31% lower than in 2009 and essentially unchanged from 2019. According to the report, this figure indicates that post-bailout growth and the increase in nominal GDP were not accompanied by a corresponding improvement in the purchasing power of wage earners.
The impact of the inflation crisis is particularly pronounced. In 2025, real wages were 1.3% lower than in 2021—the year the wave of price increases began—which demonstrates that wage increases failed to fully offset the rise in the cost of living.
The trend in hourly wages paints a similar picture. The average nominal hourly wage across the entire economy stood at 9.6 euros in 2025; however, in real terms, this amounts to only 73.5% of the 2009 level. The increase compared to 2019 is limited to just 2%, a figure that highlights the stagnation of purchasing power.
The report notes that the decline in real wages is not limited to the economy as a whole but affects nearly all major sectors. In high- and medium-to-high-tech manufacturing, the real hourly wage in 2024 remained 2.1% lower than in 2009, despite an increase in nominal wages. In low- and medium-to-low-technology manufacturing, the decline was much steeper, with the real hourly wage down 25.1% compared to pre-crisis levels.
Similar pressures are also evident in the services sector. In knowledge-intensive services, the real hourly wage in 2024 was 42.4% lower than in 2009, while in less knowledge-intensive services, the corresponding decline reached 31.3%.
The data for the education and health sectors, where a significant proportion of women are employed, are of particular interest. In education, the real hourly wage stood at 10.8 euros in 2024, down from 17.2 euros in 2009, while in the health and social care sector, it fell to 8 euros from 12.5 euros fifteen years ago. At the same time, Greece is falling further and further behind other European countries in terms of purchasing power.
A similar picture emerges for highly specialized sectors. In financial and insurance activities, the real hourly wage stood at 17.2 euros in 2025, remaining significantly lower than 2009 levels, while in professional, scientific, and technical activities, wages have essentially stagnated in real terms, even as wages in most European economies are rising at a faster pace.
The situation is even more pronounced in the sectors of trade, transportation, warehousing, lodging, and food services, which employ nearly half of the population aged 15 to 29. The real hourly wage stood at 6.4 euros in 2025, slightly higher than in 2019 but significantly lower than 2009 levels. In terms of purchasing power (PPS), the Greek hourly wage now amounts to just 64% of that in the Balkan countries and 63.6% of that in Central and Eastern European countries, whereas in 2009 it was higher than in those economies.
The INE-GSEE estimates that addressing the problem cannot rely exclusively on emergency financial aid, which offers only temporary relief. Instead, it proposes permanent measures, such as expanding the coverage of workers under collective bargaining agreements, reforming the mechanism for setting the minimum wage, further reducing the tax burden on wage labor, and addressing distortions in the markets for goods and services. At the same time, it emphasizes that a substantial increase in real incomes requires a deeper transformation of the country’s production model, with an emphasis on creating high-quality and better-paid jobs, boosting productivity, and improving the competitiveness of the Greek economy.