Key takeaways for hiring in Greece
Greece EOR or entity setup shapes your first hire decision
Before you make an offer to your first Greek hire, three decisions will shape everything that follows.
- You need to decide whether to hire through an employer of record or set up a local Greek entity, and for most companies with fewer than a handful of hires, the EOR path is faster and significantly less expensive.
- Greek labor law requires you to understand mandatory bonuses, tenure-based vacation accrual, and the 2024 labor reform package before you draft a single employment contract.
- You need to evaluate EOR providers on compliance depth, pricing transparency, speed to hire, and the quality of human support when things get complicated.
Oyster has done this before across 120+ countries, including Greece, and will walk you through each of these decisions with in-house specialists who know Greek employment law.
Greece at a glance
Greece's mandatory bonuses and leave rules add two months of salary cost
Greece operates on a monthly payroll cycle, so your hire will expect a single monthly payment rather than bi-weekly disbursements. Plan your cash flow accordingly from day one.
As of January 1, 2025, the social security contributions are 21.79% at the employer level and 13.37% at the employee level, totaling 35.16%. The monthly social security contribution cap for the primary social security fund (EFKA) is set at EUR 7,761.94 from January 1, 2026. Note: Some sources cite 22.29% employer contributions; rates may vary slightly depending on employee classification and fund type. Contributions include pension (main component), health insurance, unemployment insurance, and other social security programs. For 2025, the maximum gross monthly base salary subject to social security contributions is EUR 7,572.62, which gives you a ceiling for estimating your all-in cost on higher-salary hires.
Greece has three mandatory bonus payments that together equal two additional months of salary: half a month for Easter, half a month for summer, and one full month for Christmas. These are not discretionary.
Budget for them before you make an offer.
The standard workweek is 40 hours. Employees can work up to five additional "overwork" hours per week, compensated at 120% of their regular rate. Greece also introduced an optional four-day workweek in 2024, which allows employees working four days to work up to 13 hours per day.
Greece observes 14 public holidays, though some have regional variation. Annual leave accrues on a tenure basis tied to an employee's total work history across all employers, not just their time with your company.
This is one of the details that catches international employers off guard.
Remote employees are entitled to a minimum stipend of EUR 28 per month. The statutory probationary period is 12 months, during which termination is immediate with no severance obligation. Setting up a Greek entity (an IKE or EPE) as a foreign-owned subsidiary takes about 2 to 4 weeks for the core registration.
What hiring in Greece actually looks like
A real scenario before your first Greek hire
You've found a strong candidate in Athens. Your legal team is asking whether you need an entity. Your Finance lead wants to know the all-in cost.
Here's what that conversation actually requires. First, you need to decide whether to set up a Greek entity or hire through an EOR. For one to a few hires, entity setup rarely makes financial or operational sense. Second, calculate the true all-in cost: gross salary plus ~25% employer contributions. Add the mandatory three-part bonus, which equals two additional months of salary. Third, your employment contract must include correct bonus language, working hours documentation, and the EUR 28/month remote-working stipend if your hire works remotely. Fourth, you need to get the employee onboarded compliantly without delays that cost you the candidate.
The rest of this page answers each of these questions in detail.
What is an EOR and is it legal in Greece
How an employer of record works in Greece
An employer of record in Greece is a company that acts as the legal employer on your behalf, managing payroll, taxes, contracts, and compliance while your hire works exclusively for you.
The three-party relationship works like this: you direct the work and manage the employee day-to-day, the EOR holds the legal employment relationship and handles all statutory obligations, and the employee receives full statutory protections under Greek law. This is not a staffing agency arrangement. The employee is not placed temporarily. They are your team member, employed compliantly through the EOR's local entity.
Using an EOR is legal in Greece. Greece is an EU member state, and EOR arrangements operate within established EU employment frameworks. As an EU country, Greece is also subject to GDPR, which means your employment contracts and data handling processes must comply with both Greek labor law and European data protection rules. Oyster handles both.
EOR versus setting up a legal entity in Greece
The EOR path requires no entity, gets you to hire in days rather than months, and carries lower upfront cost. Oyster manages compliance, payroll, and statutory benefits from day one.
Setting up a local Greek entity gives you full operational control, but it comes with significant setup costs, weeks or months of delay, and ongoing administrative burden including local accounting, tax filings, and corporate governance. Registering an IKE or EPE typically takes 2 to 4 weeks, and that timeline doesn't include the bank account opening and tax registration that still have to happen before you can run payroll.
If you have one to a few hires in Greece, entity setup rarely makes financial or operational sense. The EOR path lets you redirect that time and budget toward building your team rather than building infrastructure. When your Greek headcount grows to a scale where entity economics shift, that decision can be revisited.
Greece labor laws your hire depends on
Employment contracts and probationary periods in Greece
Greek employers must provide a written employment contract. You can offer fixed-term or indefinite contracts, and the choice affects termination obligations and severance calculations.
The statutory probationary period in Greece is 12 months. During this period, you can terminate immediately with no severance obligation. After probation, termination rules and severance calculations apply based on tenure.
Remote employees are entitled to a minimum stipend of EUR 28 per month. This must be documented in the employment contract, not treated as an informal arrangement.
Non-compete provisions are enforceable in Greece but narrowly defined. They can last a maximum of two years, must be tied to legitimate business interests, and must be compensated at typically 50% of monthly salary per month of restriction. Broad, uncompensated non-competes will not hold up.
Working hours and overtime in Greece
The standard workweek in Greece is 40 hours. Beyond that, employers can request up to five additional "overwork" hours per week, with a maximum of nine hours per day, compensated at 120% of the regular rate.
Managerial employees are exempt from overtime rules. The exemption applies to employees acting as business owners or receiving exceptionally high wages. Applying overtime rules incorrectly to employees who qualify for the managerial exemption is a compliance risk that surfaces in audits.
Greece's 2024 labor reform introduced an optional four-day workweek. Employees who elect to work four days can work up to 13 hours per day. This is employee-elected, not employer-mandated, and requires updated contract language to implement correctly.
Mandatory bonuses and statutory benefits in Greece
Greece has three mandatory bonus payments that are not discretionary and must appear in every employment contract. Half a month's salary is paid before Easter, half a month before summer, and one full month before Christmas. Together, these equal two additional months of salary per year.
Greece observes 14 public holidays, with some regional variation. Annual leave accrues on a tenure basis tied to an employee's total work history across all employers, not just their time with your company. An employee who has worked elsewhere for five years before joining you arrives with five years of accrued leave entitlement. This is a unique feature of Greek employment law that catches international employers off guard.
Your employee in Greece has real expectations built into law. A good EOR handles these automatically, so you are not manually tracking bonus calendars or leave accrual tables.
Payroll taxes and employer contributions in Greece
The payroll tax question in Greece starts with the employer social security contribution of approximately 24.8% on top of gross salary. For 2025, this contribution is capped at a maximum gross monthly base salary of EUR 7,572.62, which gives you a ceiling for estimating costs on higher-salary hires.
Employee income tax in Greece is progressive. Rates by bracket:
- 9% on income up to EUR 10,000
- 22% on EUR 10,001 to EUR 20,000
- 28% on EUR 20,001 to EUR 30,000
- 36% on EUR 30,001 to EUR 40,000
- 44% above EUR 40,000
Remote employees also trigger the EUR 28/month stipend as an additional employer cost. Factor this into your offer math before you extend an offer.
Termination, notice periods, and severance in Greece
Greek employment can be terminated immediately with no notice required. However, if you provide the statutorily suggested notice period, your severance obligation is halved. This trade-off is one of the most important compliance decisions you will make when ending a Greek employment relationship.
The 12-month probationary period allows immediate termination with no severance. After probation, severance scales with tenure. Trade union involvement and collective agreements can affect termination terms in certain sectors, which is another reason to have in-house legal expertise rather than template contracts.
Getting termination wrong in Greece is expensive and slow to resolve. The severance calculation, notice decision, and documentation requirements all need to be handled correctly from the moment you decide to end the relationship.
The workforce in Greece
Skills, talent pools, and typical pay in Greece
Greece is a talent market worth accessing strategically, not just a cost play. Greece's EU membership, strong English-language proficiency across professional sectors, and internationally experienced labor pool make it a genuine source of specialized talent.
Based on Oyster platform data, US-based and UK-based companies are the top employers of Greek talent through Oyster, with Spain-based companies also hiring here. Talent concentrates in technology, maritime logistics, financial services, and hospitality management. Greece's post-2010 economic recovery produced a skilled workforce with international experience and competitive expectations.
Trade union awareness matters in specific industries, particularly maritime and manufacturing. Cultural fit considerations are real, and understanding the local professional context helps you build teams that stay. For specific compensation benchmarks, Oyster can provide current data through a demo.
How to choose an EOR in Greece
Four things your Greece EOR must deliver
Not all EOR providers are built the same, and Greece's recent labor reforms mean the gap between providers with active legal expertise and those with static contract templates is wider than it looks.
- Compliance depth: Your EOR needs in-house legal specialists familiar with Greek law, with contracts updated to reflect the 2024 labor reform package, not templates built two years ago and left static.
- Pricing transparency: Flat pricing with no hidden fees or termination charges. You should be able to model your total cost before you commit.
- Speed to hire: The ability to onboard within 48 hours of offer acceptance. Losing a candidate to a slow compliance process is a real cost.
- Human support: A dedicated contact who answers when things get complex, not a ticketing system that routes your question to a queue.
The sections below cover how Oyster delivers on each of these criteria for Greek hiring specifically.
How Oyster handles your compliance in Greece
Legal-reviewed contracts built for Greek employment law
Oyster's employment agreements are reviewed by in-house Greek employment specialists, not outsourced to a network of local partners. This distinction matters when the law changes.
In practice, compliance for your Greek hire means: the correct contract type for your situation, statutory bonus language that reflects all three mandatory payments, accurate social security contribution setup, GDPR-compliant data handling, and working hours documentation that covers overwork provisions and the optional four-day workweek. Oyster tracks legislative changes, including the 2024 labor reform, and updates contract templates proactively rather than reactively.
When compliance questions arise (and they will), a real specialist is available. Not a chatbot, not a knowledge base article. A person who knows Greek employment law and can give you a direct answer.
Transparent EOR pricing with no hidden fees
What you actually pay when hiring in Greece
Your all-in cost for a Greek hire has two components: statutory employer costs and the Oyster service fee.
Statutory costs include the ~24.8% social security contribution on gross salary (capped at EUR 7,572.62/month for 2025), the mandatory three-part bonus equivalent to two additional months of salary, and the EUR 28/month remote-working stipend for remote employees. These are predictable and plannable.
Oyster's pricing is flat with no termination fees, meaning you are not penalized for offboarding an employee. Using an EOR is significantly less expensive than entity setup and ongoing local operations for small team sizes.
How fast you can hire in Greece with Oyster
From offer accepted to day one in under 48 hours
Oyster can onboard a new Greek employee in as little as 48 hours from offer acceptance, with all compliance documentation handled in the platform.
- Enter employee details in Oyster
- Oyster generates a compliant Greek employment contract
- Employee signs digitally
- Oyster registers payroll, social security, and mandatory benefit structures
- Employee starts on day one
Oyster manages the mandatory remote-working stipend setup, bonus calendar, and tax withholding from the first payroll cycle. Payroll runs monthly as required in Greece, and Oyster's platform handles 120+ currencies. Entity setup in Greece takes significantly longer and requires local bureaucratic steps. The EOR path is faster by a wide margin.
Oyster versus other EOR providers for Greece
How Oyster compares to Deel, Remote, and Rippling for Greece
When you're evaluating EOR providers for Greece, the question that matters most is: who picks up when something goes wrong with your Greek hire at 4pm on a Thursday?
Versus Remote: Oyster provides dedicated contacts versus shared support queues, and charges no termination fees, which matters when employment relationships end.
Versus Deel: Oyster support comes from an in-house team of country specialists and HR experts, versus a more product-led model where support often relies on AI and chatbots, and Oyster holds B Corp certification, which reflects how ethical employment practices are built into how we operate, not just how we market.
Versus Rippling: Oyster is purpose-built for global employment versus a US-centric platform expanding internationally, which means Greece is a core market for Oyster, not an edge case.
Greece's 2024 labor reforms and EU GDPR obligations mean you need an EOR with active legal monitoring. Oyster is the only B Corp-certified EOR, and that certification reflects a structural commitment to ethical employment practices across all 120+ countries where we operate.
Start hiring in Greece with your EOR today
Book a demo and hire your first Greek employee
You can hire compliantly in Greece without entity setup, hidden fees, or compliance guesswork. Book a Demo to see how Oyster handles Greek employment end-to-end.
