All employees who are paid a salary or a daily wage and work either full or part time and have an employment contract of either fixed or indefinite duration, they are entitled to an Easter holiday allowance from their employers equal with half a monthly salary for those paid with a salary and mwith 15 days’ wages for the daily wage earners.
The Easter Gift is paid to the beneficiaries on Holy Wednesday every year. This year we have Holy Wednesday on May 1st. It goes without saying that there is no obligation for the employer to pay the gift earlier than these dates. Under no circumstances may it be paid in kind, but only in money.
What applies to its calculation
As we read in the Workers and Unemployed Information Center (KEPEA):
- the Easter gift is paid in full as long as the employment relationship of the employees with the employer it lasted the entire time period, i.e. from January 1 to April 30.
- Those of the above employees who have not completed the above period of time, are entitled to an Easter Gift ratio, which is calculated at an amount equal to 1/15 of half the monthly salary or one day’s salary (depending on the agreed payment method) for every eight (8) days of the duration of the employment relationship. For a period of less than 8 days, a corresponding fraction is paid.
- Easter gift proportional to the time the employment relationship lasted, employees who have already left their jobs at the time of payment thereof, either because they were dismissed by their employer, or because they left voluntarily.
- The Easter gift, as well as the Christmas gift and holiday pay, were further secured with the National General SSE of the year 2010 (article 1) for private law employees throughout the Greek territory.
- The provisions of the institutional framework for holiday gifts are of a public nature, consequently any express or implied agreement to the contrary shall be disallowed and void; as well as the employee’s waiver of their payment claim
In accordance with Ministerial Decision 19040/1981, as well as based on other relevant legislation and jurisprudence, a table is provided with indicative cases whose time is or is not deducted from the time of employment in order to calculate the Easter Gift.
You can calculate the Easter Gift you will receive, in the KEPEA online application.
Other benefits that are considered regular wages and are counted
The Easter Gift is calculated based on the wages actually paid to employees on the 15th day before Easter. In case the employment relationship has been terminated before the above date, the Easter Gift is calculated based on the wages paid on the day the employment relationship was terminated.
Paid salary or daily wage means the total of the employee’s regular wages. The concept of regular remuneration includes:
a) The contractual or legal monthly salary or daily salary, and
b) Any other benefit in money or in kind (e.g. food, housing), as long as it is paid by the employer in exchange for the work provided by the employee, regularly every month or repeatedly periodically at certain intervals of the year. At the same time, they have been judged (with various court decisions), that the following benefits also constitute regular remuneration:
- The leave allowance. In order to calculate the ratio for the leave allowance in the gift, the total amount of the gift to which the employee is entitled will be multiplied by the coefficient 0.041666.
- The remuneration for work on Sundays and on exceptional holidays or at night hours, as long as the employment is regular and permanent.
- The value of the milk provided daily.
- The additional pay given by the employer voluntarily for greater productivity (premium), when repeated over a long period of time and at regular intervals. They do not include the productivity premium which is granted subject to the achievement of a certain goal and subject to its reduction at any time.
- Gratuities given to employees by third parties.
- Travel expenses, when not dependent on the performance of official travel, are not subject to billing and are not interrupted during illness or leave.
- The legal overtime pay, as long as it is provided regularly.
- Overtime pay, as long as it is provided regularly.
- The fee from commissions.
- The housing allowance.
- Balance allowance, as long as it is paid regularly every year.