Greece has the longest working hours in the European Union, with a significantly higher share of employees working more than 49 hours per week than the EU average, according to a new report by the Labor Institute of the Greek General Confederation of Labor (INE GSEE).

The report found that 11.6% of workers in Greece spend 49 hours or more each week in their main job—roughly double the European Union average. The figure is also 6.1 percentage points higher than the average in Central and Eastern European and Balkan EU member states.

Overall, employed people aged 15 to 64 in Greece worked an average of 41 hours per week in their main job in 2025, compared with an EU average of 37.7 hours, according to the report.

Long Hours and Intensified Work

INE GSEE said Greece’s labor market is characterized not only by relatively low wages but also by increasingly intensive working conditions.

Despite some progress in recent years, the report said Greece continues to record among the longest working hours in the EU. It attributed the trend to insufficient institutional protections for workers, weak organizational practices within businesses, and structural weaknesses in the country’s economy, all of which contribute to persistently low job quality.

Self-employed workers were identified as a major factor behind the country’s long working hours. In 2025, they worked an average of 47.2 hours per week, compared with an EU average of 41.9 hours.

By contrast, salaried employees worked an average of 39.1 hours per week, with Greece performing slightly better than Balkan countries and marginally better than Central and Eastern European member states in that category.

Retail, Manufacturing, and Hospitality Among the Hardest-Hit Sectors

The report also highlighted significant differences across industries.

In wholesale and retail trade, which accounts for 17.6% of total employment in Greece, full-time employees worked an average of 43.3 hours per week in 2025—more than workers in Balkan, Central and Eastern European countries, as well as economies in Southern Europe’s periphery. Part-time employees in the sector averaged 23.6 hours per week.

Manufacturing workers averaged 41.7 hours per week, slightly fewer than in 2019 but still above comparable countries included in the study.

In accommodation and food services—the sector with the third-largest share of employment in Greece—employees worked an average of 43.1 hours per week in 2025. That was nearly eight hours more than the EU average of 35.3 hours and substantially higher than averages recorded in Southern European, Central and Eastern European, and Balkan economies.

The report also found that workers in agriculture, forestry, and fishing averaged 45.1 hours per week, around six hours more than workers in Balkan countries and three hours above the EU average.