One in four workers earns up to 500 euros
The collapse of Greece’s middle classes and the impoverishment of workers, with one in four earning less than 500 euros per month, have been recorded in another report by the Labor Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Labor (INE GSEE).
Although the scientists who drafted the report did not discern a possible reversal in the steady course of the fiscal indexes and economic growth, they argued that this is not enough to improve the financial position of salary workers. Notably, during the latter part of the crisis – i.e. from 2015 to 2018 – an increase was recorded in the number of low-paid workers, especially those on less than 700 euros per month, mainly because of the expansion of flexible forms of labor.
According to the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA) figures processed by the institute, the number of people earning up to 250 euros per month almost quadrupled from 2010 to last year: They grew from 64,000 workers in 2010 to 251,020 in 2018. The number of workers earning no more than 500 euros tripled during the same period.
Flexible forms of labor now dominate in terms of job creation, as they accounted for more than 50 percent of new posts in the five years from 2014 to 2018, the report showed.
