Severance pay in Greece 2026: what your employer owes on dismissal
This calculator applies the Greek statutory severance table of Law 4093/2012, the one-sixth uplift and the pay cap of Law 3198/1955.
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Greek severance pay in 2026 is between 2 and 12 months of salary, depending on the number of completed years with the same employer, and the total is increased by one sixth to reflect the Christmas bonus, Easter bonus and leave allowance you would otherwise have earned. Nothing is due in the first twelve months. One to four years gives 2 months; 16 years or more gives the maximum of 12. On a salary of €2,200, five years of service mean €7,700 if you are dismissed without notice, and €3,850 if your employer gave you written notice of 3 months first, because notice halves the payment. The salary used is the regular pay of your last full-time month, capped at €9,861.60. Day-rate workers count 22 daily wages as one month. Staff who already had 17 years with the same employer on 12 November 2012 receive extra months on top. Enter your own figures in the calculator.
Severance without notice
€6,533
| Months of pay (table) | 4 |
| Monthly pay used | €1,400 |
| Base severance | €5,600 |
| 1/6 uplift (bonuses and leave allowance) | +€933 |
| Notice required | 3 months |
Gross amount, based on the last month of full-time regular pay.
2026 rates from Greek law, e-EFKA and the Ministry of Labour · calculated in your browser, nothing is sent.
The statutory scale at a salary of €2,200
| Completed service | Months | Notice | No notice | With notice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 2 | 1 month | €5,133 | €2,567 |
| 3 years | 2 | 2 months | €5,133 | €2,567 |
| 4 years | 3 | 2 months | €7,700 | €3,850 |
| 6 years | 4 | 3 months | €10,267 | €5,133 |
| 8 years | 5 | 3 months | €12,833 | €6,417 |
| 10 years | 6 | 4 months | €15,400 | €7,700 |
| 12 years | 8 | 4 months | €20,533 | €10,267 |
| 14 years | 10 | 4 months | €25,667 | €12,833 |
| 16 years | 12 | 4 months | €30,800 | €15,400 |
| 18 years | 12 | 4 months | €30,800 | €15,400 |
Every amount already includes the one-sixth uplift. The months column is the scale set by Law 4093/2012 for a dismissal without notice, which Greeks call apozimiosi apolysis; the notice column is how much written warning (proeidopoiisi) the employer must give to pay only half. The scale climbs in two-year steps up to ten years, then by one month for each further year until it stops at 12 months after 16 years. Someone with 18 years receives the same as someone with 16, unless they belong to the group of long-serving staff protected in 2012.
Only completed years count. Three years and eleven months is three years, which is 2 months of pay; one more month of service would not move you up a row, but crossing the fourth anniversary does.
How a Greek payroll office works the number out
The base is the regular gross pay of the last month you worked full time. If you moved to part-time recently, the base is still the last full-time month.
That base, capped where necessary, is multiplied by the number of months in the table. The result is then raised by one sixth. The reason is practical: a Greek salary is paid fourteen times a year, and the monthly figure leaves out the two holiday bonuses and the leave allowance. At €2,200 after five years the steps are €6,600, plus €1,100, which makes €7,700.
Foreign employees most often lose money on this last step. An HR department used to another country’s rules may quote salary times months and stop. Ask to see the one-sixth line; the Labour Inspectorate (Epitheorisi Ergasias) lists it as part of the statutory amount.
The cap for senior salaries
Article 5 of Law 3198/1955 still limits the monthly pay that enters the calculation: eight times the daily wage of an unskilled worker, times 30. With the minimum daily wage at €41.09, the cap is €9,861.60. Few employees reach it, but executives on expatriate packages sometimes do. At €10,500 with 12 years, the statutory amount is €92,042, against €98,000 without the limit. Because the cap moves with the minimum daily wage, it rose automatically with the April 2026 increase.
Day-rate workers and the 22-day month
Since January 2022 manual workers paid by the day follow the same table as salaried staff. Their month is set at 22 daily wages by article 64 of Law 4808/2021, unless they are already on a monthly salary. A worker on €48 a day with six years’ service therefore has a severance month of €1,056 and receives €4,928. The guide for manual workers explains the change.
Long service before 12 November 2012
Law 4093/2012 stopped the scale at twelve months but added a transitional rule for long service. Anyone who on 12 November 2012 had completed 17 years with the same employer receives extra months on top of the 12: one month at 17 years, rising to twelve at 28 years or more. The count was frozen on that date, and the salary for those extra months is limited to €2,000. The long-service page has a dedicated calculator.
Written notice halves the payment
If your employer gives written notice of 1 to 4 months, depending on your service, you keep working and being paid during that period and then receive half the table amount. Notice runs from the day after you receive it. The dismissal notice guide compares the two routes in euros.
How the employer may pay it in instalments
Total severance
€14,000
| At dismissal (2 months’ pay) | €3,000 |
| Remainder | €11,000 |
| Two-monthly instalments, at most | 4 |
Instalments are allowed only above two months’ pay; each one is at least two months’ pay.
When the money must arrive
Severance is due at the moment of dismissal, or at the end of the notice period when notice was given. It must be paid into a payment account, never in cash. If the amount is larger than two months’ pay, the employer may pay two months at once and the remainder in instalments every two months, none smaller than two months’ pay; the first instalment falls due the day after two months have passed since the dismissal. In the five-year example that means €4,400 on the day and €3,300 spread over at most 1 instalments.
Limits of this calculator
The figure is the statutory minimum for an open-ended contract. A contract, a collective agreement or established custom can give more, and the law says the larger amount prevails. The calculator does not apply the reduced rates for leaving to take a full pension (40 % with auxiliary cover, 50 % without), nor the half severance that article 8 of Law 3198/1955 grants to someone who leaves with the employer’s consent after 15 years or at the age limit. Untaken leave and the pro-rata holiday bonuses are paid on top and are not part of the one-sixth uplift. For your final net salary, use the Greek salary calculator.