Store assistants get a poor bargain
Sales assistants who struggled to deal with the tide of Christmas shoppers will not be assuaged by the knowledge that they are among lowest paid in the EU, apart from Portugal, Spain and the new member states. Sales assistants aged 20-25 working in department stores in Athens have an annual income of 11,212 euros yearly, when their counterparts in Copenhagen (Denmark) earn over 26,500 euros yearly and in Stockholm (Sweden), about 19,397 euros yearly. Some comfort may be provided by the thought that in Lisbon, a sales assistant’s annual earnings amount to no more than 6,711 euros per annum, and in Madrid 8,839 euros. There are worse places to be a sales assistant: in Caracas, Venezuela, sales assistants earn 2,100 euros yearly while in Nairobi, Kenya, they earn 1,200 euros.
