At a glance
Four hours a day, five days a week, is 20 hours, half of 40. So you get half the pay of the job: on the minimum wage of €920, €460 gross, which is €398.50 net a month. Your hour is paid the same as on a full day, €5.52.
- A part-time salary is the pay of the job for 40 hours, times your hours, divided by 40. The minimum wage applies in proportion to the hours1.
- On four hours a day, five days a week, 20 hours, the minimum gives €460 gross and €398.50 net a month.
- Your hour is paid the same as on a full day: €5.52 on the minimum, because hourly pay counts with the hours in your contract2.
- Each hour above your contract is paid at the hourly pay plus 12%.
- The bonuses and the holiday allowance count on your part-time salary, as for everyone3,4.
The gist
Four hours in the morning, while the children are at school. Four hours in the afternoon, after university. Four hours at a second job, to make the month work. For many people a four-hour day, the τετράωρο, is the only way to work, and for others it is a first step. The question is always the same: how much is it at the end of the month, and is it right?
Part-time work has one simple principle, and if you hold on to it, it settles most things: you work fewer hours, so you get a smaller salary, but each hour of yours is worth as much as a colleague’s on a full day. After that come the details that cost money: hours that run over, bonuses that shrink or are forgotten, insurance days that are not always what you expect.
This article is for people who work, or are thinking of working, part time, and mostly on four hours a day. You will see how the salary is worked out, how much is left as net pay, what your hour is worth, how hours above your contract are paid, and what applies to bonuses, public holidays and insurance days. At the end you will see the month of a student working four hours a day in a bookshop.
How a part-time salary is worked out
A part-time salary starts from the pay of the job for full time, 40 hours a week. You multiply it by your hours and divide by 40. That is all.
The minimum wage is €920 gross a month for full-time work, from 1 April 20261. In part-time work it applies in proportion to the hours. For 20 hours a week, the minimum is €920 times 20 divided by 40, which is €460. For 30 hours it is €690. A salary below these figures, for these hours, is below the minimum.
If your job pays more than the minimum, the sum is the same. A job that pays €1,200 for a full day pays €600 for four hours. A job under a collective agreement that pays more than the minimum pays the same share in part-time work.
| Pay of the job for 40 hours | Four hours, five days, gross | Net a month |
|---|---|---|
| €1,000 | €500 | €433.15 |
| €1,200 | €600 | €519.78 |
| €1,500 | €750 | €646.75 |
The net figures are for someone with no children, over 30. At €750 the tax of the month is €2.97, so that is where age and children start to change the net a little.
What matters is knowing the pay of the job for 40 hours. That is the first figure the part-time calculator asks for. If you are offered an amount for four hours a day, double it and compare it with what you would earn for a full day in the same job.
Four hours on a 5-day or a 6-day week
“Four hours a day” does not always mean the same thing. Four hours over five days make 20 hours a week. Four hours over six days make 24. The difference is a whole day of work, and it must show in your pay. On the minimum wage, the 4 extra hours of the week are worth €552 minus €460, which is €92 gross a month.
Here is what the minimum gives on some common schedules, with no children and over 30:
| Schedule | Hours a week | Gross a month | Net a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 hours, 5 days | 20 | €460 | €398.50 |
| 4 hours, 6 days | 24 | €552 | €478.20 |
| 6 hours, 5 days | 30 | €690 | €597.75 |
| 8 hours, 5 days | 40 | €920 | €771.67 |
The gross comes from the simple sum: €920 times the hours, divided by 40. The net comes from the rules of 2026 for contributions and tax. The year has 14 payments in part-time work too, as with any salary: 12 salaries, the two bonuses and the holiday allowance.
If you are told “four hours” without being told how many days, ask. And check what your contract says: the hours of the week and how they are spread over the days. If you work six days but your contract says 20 hours, the 4 Saturday hours are hours above your contract, and they must be paid separately. If they show nowhere, you lose a day of work every week.
From gross to net
The same deductions come out of a part-time salary as out of any salary. Your contributions to e-EFKA are 13.37%5. On the €460 of four hours a day, they are €61.50 a month.
Tax follows the scale of 20266. On €460 a month, the tax your employer withholds is €0.00, because on such a small income it is covered by the tax reduction the law gives to employees7. The same holds for the €552 of four hours on six days, with tax of €0.00, and for the €690 of six hours a day, with tax of €0.00.
So on four hours a day, five days a week, you keep €398.50 net a month, and €5,579.00 a year, with the 14 payments. Age and children, which change the net on higher salaries, change nothing here, because the tax is already zero. A 22-year-old student and a mother of two keep the same net from the same gross.
This changes if you have a second job or other income during the year. The tax of the year counts on all your income, and it is settled with your tax return. The part-time calculator shows the net of one job.
Your hour is worth as much as on a full day
This is the principle of part-time work. Hourly pay is the salary divided by 25, times 6, divided by the weekly hours in your contract2. In full-time work the divisor is 40. In part-time work it is your own hours.
On €460 for 20 hours, the hourly pay is €460 divided by 25, times 6, divided by 20: €5.52. On €552 for 24 hours, it is €5.52. Both equal the hourly pay of the minimum wage on a full day. Half the salary for half the hours gives the same hour.
If you divided by 40 by mistake, you would get half the hour, and every extra hour or premium would be paid at half. So when you check your payslip, always start from the right hourly pay. For the whole formula, see the article How hourly pay is worked out.
The same logic helps you compare offers. A job paying €600 for 20 hours has an hourly pay of €7.20, as much as a job paying €1,200 for 40 hours. If another job gives you €520 for 24 hours, its hour is smaller, even if the salary looks close. And a job paying €750 for 20 hours pays €9.00 an hour, well above a full day on the minimum.
Hours above your contract: 12%
In part-time work, every hour you work above the hours in your contract is paid at the hourly pay plus 12%. If your contract says 20 hours and you work 22, the two hours earn 12% on top of your hourly pay.
On four hours a day at the minimum, your hour is €5.52, the same as a full day at the minimum. So each extra hour is paid €6.18. Ten extra hours a month bring €61.82, of which the premium is €6.62.
The 12% is smaller than the 20% for extra hours in full-time work, but it applies from the first hour above your contract. For the full-time rules, see the article Extra hours and overtime.
There is something more important than the rate. If extra hours happen every week, your “four hours” is in practice a longer schedule. Ask for the hours to be shown on your payslip, and if they become permanent, ask for your contract to change. A contract with more hours gives you a higher salary, bigger bonuses and more insurance days.
Bonuses and holiday allowance
The bonuses and the holiday allowance are not a privilege of full-time work. They count on your part-time salary, as for every employee3,4.
On a salary of €460 a month, for the full period:
| Payment | Gross |
|---|---|
| Christmas bonus | €479.17 |
| Easter bonus | €239.58 |
| Holiday allowance | €230.00 |
The Christmas bonus is paid by 21 December3, and it is a little over one salary, because the law adds a small part for annual leave. If you changed your hours during the year, or you have worked part time for only a few months, the sum needs care. The article Christmas bonus with part-time work explains it step by step.
Put together, the year of four hours a day has 14 payments, like any salary. On €460 a month, the net of the year is €5,579.00. On four hours over six days, at €552, it is €6,694.80. The difference of the sixth day shows in the bonuses too, because they follow the salary.
Sundays, holidays and nights in part-time work
The premiums for Sundays, public holidays and night work apply in part-time work too, on your own base8. Your daily pay is your salary divided by 25. On €460, it is €18.40, and a public holiday you work brings a 75% premium: €13.80.
If you work on a Sunday, you are also entitled to a day of rest during the week, like everyone.
Night work counts by the hour. Each hour from 22:00 to 06:00 earns 25% on top of your hourly pay, which on four hours a day at the minimum is €5.52. If you work evenings in a bar or a restaurant, these hours add up quickly. The night work calculator counts with 40 hours, so enter the full-time pay of the job, as the article on the clock change explains.
And 28 October, which was the day before yesterday, applies to you as to everyone. If you worked it, the premium should show on your October payslip. If you did not, your monthly salary does not change.
Insurance days
Insurance days are the part of part-time work that fewest people check. You do not see them in your bank account the way you see your salary, so they get forgotten, until you need them. Insurance days depend on your hours and your pay, and they are not necessarily the same as for full time. e-EFKA shows them for each month.
This matters for two reasons. Insurance days count for your pension, so a year of part-time work may give you fewer days than a year of full time. And they count for benefits that require a certain number of days, such as unemployment benefit. If you are thinking of part-time work for a long period, check how many days you are credited with.
Unemployment benefit, for example, needs at least 125 insurance days, and then it lasts 5 months. With 250 days it lasts 12 months9. If your days are fewer than you think, the benefit may be shorter, or not due at all, at the moment you need it. The article Unemployment benefit: how much and how long explains its rules.
Contributions are the same rate, 13.37% for you, on your gross pay5. You do not pay more because you work fewer hours, nor less as a share. For what these contributions give you, see the article What e-EFKA takes from your pay.
Before you sign: what to check
The part-time contract is the paper that decides everything else: your pay, your hour, your bonuses, your insurance days. It is worth five minutes of reading before you sign, and three questions.
How many hours a week does it state, and over how many days? “Four hours a day” must become a number: 20 hours over five days, or 24 over six. Your pay and your hour come from it.
What is the gross pay for those hours? Multiply it by 40 and divide by your hours. If the result is below €920, the pay is below the minimum.
How are hours above the contract paid? The answer should be: at the hourly pay plus 12%, shown on the payslip. If you are told “we’ll sort it out”, ask to see it in writing.
Keep a copy of your contract, and a note of the hours you work each day. They are the two papers you will need in any conversation about your money.
An example
Katerina is 24, a student, and works as a sales assistant in a bookshop in Ioannina. Her contract says 20 hours a week, four hours each afternoon from Monday to Friday. The pay of the job for a full day is the minimum, €920. In October, for the start of the academic year, she stayed 8 hours longer in total.
Step 1: the salary. €920 times 20 divided by 40 makes €460 gross a month.
Step 2: the net. Her contributions, €61.50, come out of the €460. The tax is €0.00, so she keeps €398.50 net. Her age changes nothing here, because the tax is already zero.
Step 3: her hour. Her hourly pay is €460 divided by 25, times 6, divided by 20: €5.52. It is the same as that of a colleague who works a full day on the minimum.
Step 4: the extra hours. The 8 hours above her contract are paid at 12%: €49.46 gross, on top of her October salary. She receives them together with her salary, in the same payment.
Step 5: the payslip. Katerina sees on her payslip the salary of €460 and a line “extra hours”, 8 hours. She divides the amount by the hours and by her hourly pay, and gets 1.12. It is right.
Step 6: December. At Christmas the bookshop asks her to work six days a week, four hours a day. Katerina knows that the 4 Saturday hours are hours above her contract, at 12%. She also knows that if the six-day week becomes permanent, her contract should change to 24 hours, at a salary of €552. And she expects her Christmas bonus by 21 December, based on her salary of €460.
Step 7: the year. With 14 payments, Katerina’s net pay for the whole year is €5,579.00, without the extra hours. For a student, that is the figure that counts when she plans the rent and the costs of the year.
In the calculator, Katerina enters €920 as the pay of the job for 40 hours, 20 hours a week and her age. The calculator shows her the €460 gross, the contributions, the tax and the net of the month.
The mistakes that cost
Accepting pay below the minimum for your hours. For 20 hours a week, the minimum is €460 gross. A smaller amount for the same hours is below the minimum, however much it is called “part time”.
Not telling a 5-day week from a 6-day one. Four hours over six days is 24 hours, not 20. Your pay must follow the hours you actually work.
Dividing by 40 for your hour. In part-time work, hourly pay counts with the hours in your contract. With 40 you get half the hour, and you lose on every premium.
Working above your contract all the time. Extra hours earn 12%, but if they happen every week, your contract should change. Otherwise you lose on bonuses, on the holiday allowance and on insurance days.
Forgetting the bonuses. The bonuses and the holiday allowance apply in part-time work too, on your own salary. The Christmas bonus is paid by 21 December.
Not checking your insurance days. Insurance days in part-time work depend on your hours and pay. Check them at e-EFKA every few months, so you know what counts for your pension and benefits.
What the law says
The minimum wage of €920 applies from 1 April 2026 for full-time work, under joint decision 8934/2026, and in part-time work it applies in proportion to the hours1. Employee contributions are 13.37%5. Tax follows the scale of article 15 of the Income Tax Code, as Law 5246/2025 set it, with the tax reduction of article 166,7.
Hourly pay is the salary divided by 25, times 6, divided by the hours of the week, as KEPEA, the labour institute of the GSEE trade union confederation, explains it2. The Christmas and Easter bonuses are set by joint decision 19040/1981 and Presidential Decree 62/20253, and the holiday allowance by articles 221 to 226 of the same decree4. Sundays, public holidays and night work are set by articles 150, 191, 192, 196 and 2198. The rules of unemployment benefit come from DYPA, the public employment service9.
To find the pay and net for your own hours, enter the full-time pay of the job and your hours in the Part-time work calculator. It counts contributions, tax, children and your age, with the rules of 2026.
