Μake us preferred on Google Declared overtime has risen by 36.8% and Greece keeps extending its mandatory digital work card, yet one in two employees is still not paid for the extra hours they put in. Together, these figures show how widespread labor violations remain in the job market. The violations take different forms, but they serve the same purpose: hiding actual working hours and the labor costs that go with them.
The most common violations involved the digital work card itself, with 2,994 recorded cases. Next came breaches of working-hour rules (2,332), nonpayment of earned wages (1,410) and undeclared work (1,372).
What workers say
A kariera.gr survey conducted on LinkedIn in September found that only 45% of employees are properly paid for overtime. Another 42% say those hours are neither declared nor paid. A further 7% say overtime is settled in some other way, and 4% get extra leave instead of pay.
On why they work overtime, 36% blamed a heavier workload and 34% called it an exception during peak periods. Another 21% saw it as an “expected” part of the job, and just 10% linked it to employee dedication.
What the official data show
According to Labor Ministry figures, 5.7 million overtime hours were declared in the sectors covered by the system from January to July 2026. That is about 1.54 million more than in the same period of 2025, an increase of 36.8%. It comes on top of an 80% rise in 2025 compared with 2024.
Meanwhile, the digital work card is being extended to another 500,000 employees. That brings the total covered to 2.5 million, roughly 63% of the country’s workforce.
