Severance for manual workers in Greece 2026: day rates and the 22-day month
How Greek severance works for workers paid by the day since article 64 of Law 4808/2021 unified the rules.
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Since 1 January 2022, manual workers in Greece (ergatotechnites) receive the same severance as salaried employees (ypalliloi): 2 to 12 months of pay depending on completed years with the same employer, raised by one sixth for the holiday bonuses and leave allowance. The difference lies in how the month is measured. For anyone paid by the day, article 64 of Law 4808/2021 counts one month as 22 daily wages, unless the worker is already on a monthly salary. At the minimum daily wage of €41.09, a severance month is €904, and six years of service bring €4,219. A worker on €62 a day with eleven years receives €11,139 without notice, or €5,570 after proper written notice. An older table in daily wages, still visible in the Ministry of Labour’s FAQ, describes the regime before 2022 and should not be used for a dismissal today.
Severance on a daily wage
Severance without notice
€7,700
| Monthly pay (× 22) | €1,100 |
| Months of pay | 6 |
Severance by day rate
| Day rate | Severance month (× 22) | 3 years | 9 years | 16 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €41.09 a day | €904 | €2,109 | €5,273 | €12,656 |
| €55.00 a day | €1,210 | €2,823 | €7,058 | €16,940 |
| €70.00 a day | €1,540 | €3,593 | €8,983 | €21,560 |
| €90.00 a day | €1,980 | €4,620 | €11,550 | €27,720 |
Amounts are for dismissal without notice and include the one-sixth uplift. The first row is the statutory minimum daily wage in force since 1 April 2026. Three years sit in the first row of the statutory scale, nine years in the fifth, and sixteen years at the top, where the scale stops. Halve any figure if the employer gave written notice of the legal length.
This page covers open-ended contracts, the case the severance table is written for. Seasonal contracts that end on a set date are outside its scope, and so are the special rules some sectors may have.
One table for everyone since 2022
Before 2022 Greece kept separate dismissal rules for manual workers and for salaried staff. Article 64 of Law 4808/2021 merged them: from 1 January 2022 the Law 4093/2012 table, written in months of salary, applies to both groups. To apply a monthly table to people paid by the day, the law sets a conversion factor of 22 daily wages per month. A worker who has agreed a monthly salary is simply calculated on that salary.
The Labour Inspectorate, which enforces these rules, presents the 22-day month together with the general pay cap of Law 3198/1955. In daily terms the cap corresponds to €448.25, far above what manual work pays, so in practice the whole day rate counts.
The 22-day month against what you actually earn
If you work a six-day week, you probably earn 25 or 26 daily wages in a month, so your real monthly pay is higher than the severance month. At the minimum daily wage, 26 days make €1,068 against €904 for severance. The law does not distinguish between five-day and six-day weeks; there is one factor.
Do not confuse this with the other day counts in Greek pay. A day-rate worker’s Christmas bonus is 25 daily wages, the Easter bonus 15, and the leave allowance up to 13. The one-sixth uplift on severance stands for that share of bonuses and leave allowance, and it applies to manual workers exactly as it does to salaried staff.
From a daily wage to monthly net
Net per month
€845
| Gross per month | €1,027 |
| Net per day | €33.81 |
| Minimum daily wage | €41.09 |
The old table you may still come across
The Ministry of Labour’s FAQ on individual employment contracts still shows a “severance table for manual workers” with five-year bands and amounts in daily wages, referring to the royal decree of 16/18 July 1920 and Law 3198/1955. It belongs to the regime that applied before the 2022 unification. We do not reproduce it, so that nobody uses it by mistake; the Labour Inspectorate’s own severance page applies the unified table and the 22-day month. If an employer or a colleague quotes severance in “table days”, ask which table they mean.
Paper trail worth keeping
For a day-rate worker the severance base is only as reliable as the day rate on record. Keep your payslips, or at least the last few, since they show the daily wage your employer actually paid; the calculation uses the regular rate of your last full-time month. Note your hiring date from your first contract, because completed years decide the row of the table. And if you were moved from a daily wage to a monthly salary along the way, the rule changes with you: once you are on a monthly salary, that salary is the base and the 22-day conversion no longer applies.
A full example
A warehouse worker on €62 a day has been with the same company for eleven years and four months. Completed years: eleven, so 7 months. Severance month: €62 times 22, which is €1,364. Base severance: €9,548. One-sixth uplift: €1,591. Total: €11,139. Had the employer given written notice of 4 months, the payment at the end of the notice would be €5,570. The severance calculator repeats these steps when you select a daily wage; the daily wage guide and the Greek salary calculator show what your day rate is worth net while you are working.