Lower salaries, fewer new businesses in Greece

Greek people of working age are caught between low salaries as employees and the low chances of successfully starting a business of their own, two surveys revealed on Wednesday, as the state only seems to look after its own.

A report by the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) has found that as many as one in four workers received net salaries of less than 500 euros per month in 2017, based on figures from the Labor Ministry's Ergani employee database. "Keeping output low also leads to keeping salaries low," SEV warned in its weekly financial bulletin.

The average salary dropped from 1,011.2 euros per month in 2014 to 982.4 euros in 2017. At the same time the salaries of public sector workers have soared, with the average rising to 1,502 euros per month in 2017 from 1,286.6 euros in 2014; this mainly concerns contract workers and those who have been transferred to...

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