Greek Economy’s rollercoaster: Soaring tourism meets realities

According to the international news regarding the greek economy, we cannot make a clear decision on what is really happening. Let me elaborate.

In Bloomberg, we read about the great come back of the greek economy through tourism and that Greece is among the growing european countries today, despite going bankrupt in 2010. On the other hand, last week we learnt that while Moody’s acknowledges the post-pandemic improvements made by the greek goverments, it also highlights some major weaknesses, thus declining Greece’s credit rating upgrade, leaving it unchanged at Ba1, one step below investment grade. Here, we should note that for the past years the greek government has been striving for an investment-grade rating and the messages that were announced showed how sure it was for getting it. For now, there are no official statements on the matter from the greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The rollercoaster

Furthermore, the previous week, we learnt that among the european countries, the purchasing power of Greeks is second from the bottom, with Bulgaria being the last. This is something, people living in Greece can understand and agree on. The cost of the supermarket for a house of 2  people can be over 140 euros per week. The minimum wage, starting tomorrow will be 830 euros. After tax deductions, the net earnings are 708 we euros. The high cost of paying rent and electricity, leaves the aforementioned house with almost 600 euros to spend on eating, commuting and other necessary expenses. Provided the couple does not have any kind of loan, the money should last for 18 days after payday.

Someone might ask, “But why settle for a job with the minimum wage? What stops Greeks to look for something paying better? Something it the tourism industry, as it is the only industry that grows in Greece?” and to that we reply “What a great question!”

Reality Wages in Greece as of 1/4/2024

So we did our research. We asked people and businesses about how much is the wage in the tourism industry and this is what we have to report:

• For a person that works in a hotel bar, minimum wage, shared tips. Monday to Sunday, approximately 9 hours per day.
• For a person that works in an tourist excursion office, minimum wage, same days and hours as previously and pre-accepted resign at end of September.
• For a person that works on a tourist merchantise shop, 7 days a week, with a shift that starts at 15:00 and ends at midnight, a little over 1000 euros.

As much as Greeks love their tourism, and enjoy serving tourists from all over the world, they prefer doing it while being paid for their jobs’ worth. This fact, along with the decreased demographics, because during the economic crisis hundreds of thousands Greeks had to move to a different country, left the tourism looking for labor force. And while this circumstance had people thinking that now the wages should increase a little, the greek government is seeking agreements with asian countries, for both skilled and unskilled workers. This might be the solution for the low demographics, but it poses a problem for the labor force already living in Greece, asking for wages that provides them with more purchase power.