The myth that public employees are “privileged” compared to the private sector was debunked long ago. A telling study by KEPE shows monthly pay in the public sector lagging behind the private sector by 15.8% to 18.6%, comparing workers with the same education level, tenure, and age.
It isn’t just the loss of the 13th and 14th month salaries that has turned public employees, especially those in critical sectors like education and health, into “second class” workers.
The combination of austerity cuts that were never restored, inflation that eats up any nominal raises, and the “disciplinary straitjacket” that punishes union activity even with dismissal, makes the public sector work environment far from enviable.
Add to that job burnout, with substitute teachers as a clear example of the wandering, unstable employment they’ve faced for years, chronic underfunding of social services, and the long-standing ills of the patronage state, such as favoritism and party-based handouts. On top of it all comes the disrespect, and sometimes outright hostility, public employees face when knee-jerk social reactions take over.
When they strike, they become “the lazy ones blocking the roads.” Frontline public workers often become punching bags for frustrated or angry citizens. The list of incidents involving abuse, physical violence, and even armed threats or attacks against public servants keeps growing.
A Revealing Study: Public Employees 2009-2025
None of this means public employees form a single, uniformly victimized, wronged group. Nor does it mean there aren’t favored or poorly performing employees among them, as in any profession. Some public employees serve as law enforcement and may need to restrain or strike other public employees. Some senior officials abuse their power or act vindictively toward lower ranking colleagues, handing out unfair disciplinary penalties or even filing criminal complaints.
Setting value judgments aside, let’s focus on public sector pay, where there’s less room for subjectivity.
The study by the Panhellenic Association of OAED, titled “Public Employees 2009-2025: 16 Years of Income Losses,” tries to answer, with concrete examples, a question usually discussed only through scattered references to nominal raises: where does a public employee’s income stand today compared to 2009?
The study tracks three representative employee profiles, secondary, technical, and university-level education, all starting with 15 years of service as of December 31, 2009. It examines net annual income, taxation and deductions, the abolition of the 13th and 14th month salaries, pay scales, the lost 2016-2017 period, overtime work, and real purchasing power.
Purchasing Power Losses of Up to 30%
The findings of the PANSYPO study are clear: the raises of recent years haven’t closed the gap created between 2009 and 2025.
In nominal terms, net annual income over sixteen years rose by just 1.5% for secondary-education employees, 12.2% for technical-education employees, and 13.2% for university-education employees. But once official inflation is factored in, purchasing power in 2025 is 20.4% lower for secondary-education employees, 12.0% lower for technical-education employees, and 11.2% lower for university-education employees.
Inflexible Expenses
The picture gets worse when looking at expenses a household can barely avoid. The general Consumer Price Index rose 27.46% from 2009 to 2025, while the fixed basket of food, housing, and transport costs, calculated by the study using official ELSTAT data, rose 44.8%. By that measure, the loss of purchasing power reaches 29.9% for secondary-education employees, 22.5% for technical-education employees, and 21.8% for university-education employees.
Overtime pay cuts have also contributed to the wage decline, having lost over 70% of their real value compared to 2009. The maximum allowed annual afternoon overtime hours also dropped, from 720 hours in 2009 to 240. For the same monthly salary, public sector overtime is now worth roughly 42.5% of legal private sector overtime.
Personal Accounts
In.gr spoke with the study’s authors and with public employees from the health and education sectors, asking: how does what PANSYPO describes with numbers show up in your daily life? Or, put more simply: does your salary get you through the month?
Michalis Vasileiadis, 50, Teacher: “If We Didn’t Live in Our Village House, We Wouldn’t Make It”
Mr. Vasileiadis has worked in secondary education for 24 years and served on the board of OLME, the secondary teachers’ union. He, his wife (also a teacher), and their 14-year-old child live in Sappes, Rodopi, where they have the advantage of not paying rent. “If we rented in Alexandroupoli or Komotini, we’d need two or three jobs each to get by,” he says.
He recognizes that his newly hired colleagues have it worst. “A first-year teacher’s net salary is 820 euros. If they have a child, the allowance is 50 euros gross, or 100 gross in border areas. All together it barely reaches 1,000 euros. That’s not enough to live with dignity. That’s why we had 2,300 resignations of substitute teachers last year. When housing costs are over 60% of your salary, and you have to leave before the school year ends, right when tourist season starts, or stay in a hotel or campsite in September until an apartment frees up, what’s the incentive to work as a substitute teacher?” he asks.
“For me, after 24 years, I’ve lost 40% of my salary in real value, through cuts, the loss of bonuses, and rising prices. My salary has only just returned, in nominal terms, to 2010 levels, after 16 years.”
He sees restoring the 13th and 14th month salaries as a fair demand that would recover a significant part of the losses. “The 13th and 14th salaries were cut under the bailout programs, with the justification that ‘we all need to share the burden’ to help Greece through an emergency. Now that the bailout programs are over, why hasn’t it been restored? On the question of where the funding would come from, ADEDY and OLME have given answers. One solution is taxing banks’ excess profits.”
Voula Georgaki, Nurse for 38 Years: “Healthcare Workers’ Salaries Are Meager”
Voula Georgaki is a nurse at the Red Cross hospital and an active union member.
“Healthcare workers’ salaries are meager. My pay slip is available to any journalist who wants it. I’ve worked as a nurse for 38 years, a graduate of the Red Cross nursing school. I earn 1,167 euros. To make ends meet, I work afternoon shifts at private clinics to earn another 200 to 250 euros. When a colleague works a night shift and gets paid just 2 euros for the overtime, how are we supposed to attract new nurses? We haven’t managed to, because they go into the private sector instead. The average age of nurses is over 50. When those of us who are older leave, the national health system will be left without staff, not just nursing staff, but administrative and medical staff too.”
Ms. Georgaki describes desperate housing situations. “A specialist doctor starts at 1,000 euros. Colleagues in the lowest pay grade, like stretcher-bearers, are hired today at 680 euros, when the bailout-era minimum was 500. Near the hospital in Ampelokipoi, you can’t even find a basement studio for less than 500 euros.”
Burnout has become the norm. “One nurse has to cover 40 patients. Not even Houdini could manage that. I’ve repeatedly challenged ministers and the prime minister to come, unannounced, at the end of a night shift, and see the state nurses are in when they finish. Whatever I tell you, it’s still not enough.”
Restoring the 13th and 14th month salaries would help a lot, “so we can cover basic expenses, pay our taxes, and even buy a pair of shoes. Teachers and healthcare workers are among the lowest paid public employees in Europe, and we can’t live with dignity.”
What Freedom of Choice Really Costs
Konstantinos Liveris, president of PANSYPO, shares a real example from an employee who took part in the study voluntarily: Eleftheria (name changed) is 45, a secondary-education graduate, and holds an administrative position at a public organization.
She’s married with one child. “In 2009, with the 13th and 14th salaries included, she earned 1,301 euros gross. Now she earns 1,318 euros gross. That’s a nominal increase of just 17 euros. Back then, her overtime pay was 259 euros gross. Today it’s 90 euros gross, just 66 euros net. Combined with the loss of overtime pay, her nominal salary has actually dropped. In real terms, the loss is much bigger. Her husband works two jobs to make ends meet. They look for cheap alternatives wherever they can, including with food. She told me she buys chicken, grinds it herself to stretch it further, and shapes it into patties. Did you know people are doing that?”
The PANSYPO president confirms there’s a trend of people leaving the public sector, especially highly skilled staff like IT engineers. “These are specialties that have been well paid in the private sector over the last four years. That’s why there’s reluctance to work in the public sector. Colleagues with skills essential to keeping services running are resigning because they find better jobs elsewhere. To cover the gap, public organizations turn to contractors and outside providers, and we pay a fortune for it.”
When Poverty Becomes the Norm
“We now have a normalization of poverty among public employees, which began with the fiscal crisis and developed gradually. The first cuts brought major wage losses, and the low point was the abolition of the 13th and 14th month salaries, equal to 14% of total income,” says Giorgos Georgakopoulos, a teacher and member of ADEDY’s executive committee.
“The OECD’s reports describe losses reaching as high as 30% for Greek teachers over 14 years. Today a newly hired teacher earns around 800 to 820 euros in their first year, while even experienced colleagues with children or a master’s degree don’t exceed 900 to 1,000 euros. On top of that comes the housing problem, especially in tourist areas, where we’ve documented teachers living in campsites because they can’t find a home.
We’re not just talking about salaries, but about the collapse of purchasing power due to the cost of living, especially where housing has become out of reach. This also shows up as a devaluation of the teaching profession by society itself,” Mr. Georgakopoulos concludes.
