Minimum wage increase to affect 1.5 mln workers

A planned increase in the minimum wage on January 15 will affect more than 1.5 million employees, but also unemployed people receiving benefits based on its level.

The change will have a – positive or negative – impact, whether these individuals are full- or part-time employees or jobless and receiving some allowance, have enrolled in an employment program or are self-employed and freelance professionals paying their social security contributions based on the minimum wage level.

Labor Minister Effie Achtsioglou has made it clear that the new minimum salary, which will be the same for all employees regardless of age, will apply from the second half of January.

According to labor experts and unionists, the hike will range between 5 and 8 percent. An estimated 400,000 workers receive the minimum salary every month, but this will also impact on the thousands of workers in flexible forms of labor as well as many others.