Greek salaries, lower than before the crisis - Last in the EU for average salaries, first for prices!
Fifteen years after the outbreak of the great fiscal crisis, Greece is still grappling with the past, as despite the significant recovery of the last decade, real household incomes remain stuck at 15% below pre-crisis levels.
It will take at least a year for the first results of the social agreement and changes in collective agreements to be visible in the pockets of workers. This fact is also reflected in the five-year action plan recently published by the Ministry of Labor.
Compared to 2009, the last year before Greece entered the bailout to finance its deficits, households in most countries now have higher disposable incomes. Spain is at around +6.5%, Cyprus and Portugal have reached 14% and 16% respectively. Ireland has recorded an improvement of up to +21%. Greece (-15%) and Italy (-0.7%) are the only countries in crisis that have not recovered their 2009 income levels.
GDP per capita in purchasing power parity terms, which is an indicator of economic activity, also shows significant differences between EU countries. Greece was among the countries with the lowest GDP per capita (69% of the EU average), followed by Bulgaria (66%) and Latvia (68%).
On the contrary, GDP per capita is well above the EU average in Luxembourg (245%) and Ireland (221%), while the Netherlands (134%) comes in at a clear distance.
At the same time, the latest Eurostat data confirm once again that Greece is at the bottom of European countries in terms of average wages, but at the top in terms of prices of basic products.
Greece records the second lowest average annual full-time salary in the European Union, at around 18,000 euros, only above Bulgaria, which has an average salary of 15,400 euros.
The European average is 39,800 euros, while countries with similar population and production profiles are in much higher positions. Spain has an average annual full-time salary of 40,800 euros and Italy 23,500 euros.
However, a report last year from the Parliamentary Budget Office stated that it would take Greece 5-7 years to “catch up” to 2007 wages.
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