EFKA contribution ceiling 2026: €7,761.94 a month, explained

Senior salaries in Greece: cost, net and the cap

All rows assume fourteen payments, no dependent children and an employee over 30. The highlighted line is the ceiling itself; from there down, the two EFKA columns no longer move. Notice what happens to the last column: the share of gross you keep stops falling once you pass the ceiling and starts creeping back up, because the fixed contribution weighs less and less against a growing salary while the tax rate stays at 44 %.

Where the number comes from

Article 38(2) of Law 4387/2016 set the ceiling at €6,500 a month. The same paragraph indexes it every year from 2023 to 2026 by the average change in the consumer price index of the previous year, by ministerial decision, and protects it from falling: if prices drop, the ceiling stays put. Prices rose 2.5 % in 2025, so the ceiling moved from roughly €7,572.62 to €7,761.94. The decision appeared in the Government Gazette on 29 January 2026 and e-EFKA circulated it to employers as circular 4/2026, effective for January payroll.

From 2027 the formula changes. The law, and the circular, say the ceiling will follow the wage-growth index instead of prices. For a reader planning a multi-year move this is worth knowing: when wages outpace inflation, the cap will rise faster than it has in recent years, and a salary sitting just above it today could fall back under it.

Reading the payslip line by line

A Greek payslip (ekkatharistiko) lists gross pay, then the employee contribution, usually labelled ΕΦΚΑ or ΙΚΑ out of habit, then the withholding tax, known as ΦΜΥ. Under the ceiling the contribution line equals 13.37 % of gross to the cent. Above it, you will see a round €1,037.77 every month. If the figure is higher, the payroll has not applied the 2026 ceiling; if it is lower while your gross is above the cap, check whether part of your pay has been recorded under another heading.

The ceiling is monthly, not annual. Our engine applies it to each of the fourteen payments separately, which is how ordinary monthly payroll works. Bonuses, back pay or a one-off award that lands in the same month as a salary close to the cap are where real payslips can differ from a simple model: the employer’s periodic declaration to e-EFKA, the APD, is what counts, and that is the document to ask your payroll provider about.

Why employers care more than employees

The employer rate of 21.79 % is higher than the employee rate, so the cap saves the business more. On €8,000 gross the employer pays €1,691 rather than €1,743; on €15,000 it pays €1,691 rather than €3,269. For companies relocating a team to Athens or Thessaloniki this makes senior hires predictable: above the cap, each extra euro of salary costs exactly one euro, with no social charge on top.

For the employee, the cap has a second face. Earnings above €7,761.94 are not insurable earnings, the legal term the article uses: no contribution is paid on them, so they do not add to the insured salary that the Greek system records for you. If you plan to retire in Greece, the pension calculator shows how an average insured salary becomes a contributory pension, and why high earners often add private savings on top.

Income tax is not capped

Newcomers sometimes assume that, like contributions, income tax flattens out at some level. It does not. Greece taxes employment income on a progressive scale that ends with a 44 % rate on taxable income above €60,000 a year, with no upper limit. A salary of around €5,000 a month already reaches that top band, well before the contribution ceiling. That is why the jump in the last column of the table is modest: the cap removes contributions, but income tax keeps taking the same share of every euro. The income tax brackets guide lists every band and the reductions for children.

To check your own figures, the main Greek salary calculator applies the 2026 ceiling automatically, and so does the net-to-gross calculator if you are working backwards from a net target in an offer letter.