Christmas bonus in Greece 2026: how much, when, and after tax

A thirteenth payday most newcomers do not expect

Greek salaries are quoted per month but paid fourteen times a year, and the Christmas bonus is the largest of the two extra payments. If your contract says €1,800 gross a month, December brings that salary plus a bonus of €1,875. Many people arriving from countries where a thirteenth month is a perk, not a legal right, are surprised to learn that here it is statutory: the employer cannot skip it, cut it to save cash, or replace it with a dinner. Our page on the fourteen salaries shows how this changes the annual figure you should compare with an offer from abroad.

The calculator above takes your gross monthly salary or daily wage, the days you were employed between 1 May and 31 December, and optionally your age and children, which affect the tax. It returns the gross bonus, the leave allowance share inside it, the deductions and the net amount.

Gross and net bonus by salary

Figures assume a full-time employee over 30 with no dependent children, employed for the whole period. The last column, your usual net salary, is there for comparison: the net bonus is a little higher than a normal month at most salary levels, because the leave share is added and the bonus is taxed at your average rate rather than at the rate your top euros pay.

Joined during the year? Your bonus by start date

Based on €1,800 gross a month and continuous employment until the end of the year. Each block of 19 days is worth €144.00 before the leave share is added. The reference period has 245 days, which holds just under thirteen such blocks, so anyone employed since 1 May reaches the cap of one month. Leftover days below nineteen still count, as a proportional fraction.

The same arithmetic applies in reverse when a job ends before Christmas. You count from 1 May, or from your start date if later, to your last day, and the share is paid in your final settlement. For a dismissal this is separate from, and on top of, any severance pay.

Days that do not count towards the bonus

Disputes are rarely about the formula and usually about the days. According to the Labour Inspectorate, unjustified absences, strike days, unpaid leave and sick days paid by the social security fund rather than by the employer are taken out of the count. Your annual paid holiday counts in full, and so does maternity leave. If you were off sick for two weeks with an e-EFKA benefit, subtract those days from 245 before using the calculator.

Which salary is used, and when the money arrives

The bonus is calculated on your regular pay as it stands on 10 December, not on an average of the year. A pay rise from October goes straight into the bonus; one effective from 15 December does not. If the contract ended earlier, the reference is your pay on the last day.

The deadline is 21 December. The law lets the employer pay the small slice that corresponds to 21 to 31 December by the end of the month, but the bulk must be in your account before the 21st. If it is late or short, the Epitheorisi Ergasias (Labour Inspectorate) handles complaints, and the starting point is usually a written request to the employer with your own calculation attached.

Day workers, part-timers and seasonal staff

If you are paid a daily wage, as many workers in construction, hospitality and agriculture are, the full bonus is 25 daily wages rather than a month, and the pro-rata is two daily wages per 19 days. At the minimum daily wage of €41.09, a full bonus is €1,070 gross. Part-time staff get the same rules applied to their reduced pay. Seasonal workers on the islands, typically employed from May to October, receive their share when the season ends rather than in December.

Limits of this calculator

It applies the statutory minimum. Some collective agreements and individual contracts are more generous, and some include variable pay such as commission or regular overtime in the base; the tool cannot know that. It does not count your absences for you. And it estimates the tax with your average rate for the year, while a payroll office may adjust the December withholding to correct earlier months. The methodology page explains every assumption, and the main salary calculator uses the same engine.