At a glance
In a 5-day week, the sixth day is paid at the daily wage plus 40%, in businesses that run non-stop and declare it on ERGANI II before the work. Outside that rule, the premium is 30%. On a salary of €1,200, a sixth day at 40% is paid €67.20.
- In a 5-day week, the sixth day of the week is paid at the daily pay plus 40%, in businesses that run non-stop or on 24-hour shifts1.
- The 40% needs a declaration on ERGANI II before the work. Outside that rule, the premium is 30%.
- The sixth day is paid in full, on top of your salary. On a salary of €1,200, it brings €67.20 at 40%.
- The sixth day lasts up to 8 hours, with no overtime on the same day.
- Hotels and restaurants have other rules.
The gist
On the factory notice board, the November rota has two Saturdays marked in red. Below it, a sheet says “sixth day, with a premium”. Half the shift are pleased about the money. The other half wonder how much it is, and whether it is worth losing the Saturday. And almost nobody knows whether “with a premium” means 30% or 40%, or whether the day is paid in full.
The sixth day in a five-day week is one of the rules people hear about most and understand least. It has two rates, 40% and 30%, a condition on the kind of business, a declaration that must be made before the work, and a limit on hours. And because it is paid by the day and not by the hour, it produces amounts nobody expects.
This article is for people on a 5-day week who are asked, regularly or now and then, to work a sixth day. You will see when the 40% applies and when the 30%, what the day brings on your salary or daily wage, what happens with the hours, and how it compares with extra hours. At the end you will see the sums for a month with two Saturdays.
What the sixth day is
Full-time work is 40 hours a week, and in most jobs it is spread over five days. When your contract is for a 5-day week and you also work a sixth day in the same week, that day is the “sixth day” of the rule1.
Take an ordinary week. From Monday to Friday you work 8 hours a day, the 40 hours of your contract. If you also work on the Saturday, that is the sixth day. The calculator counts it as one day, whether it lasted 5 hours or 8, and pays it at the daily pay plus the premium.
The rule concerns the 5-day week. If your contract is for a 6-day week, Saturday is a normal day for you, inside your salary, and it does not earn this premium.
The sixth day is not the same as extra hours. The hours from the 41st to the 45th of the week are extra hours, the υπερεργασία, and they are paid by the hour2. The sixth day is paid by the day, at the daily pay. The difference shows in the amounts, as you will see below. For hours, the article Extra hours and overtime explains their limits and premiums.
When it is paid at 40%
The sixth day at 40% applies in businesses on a 5-day week that run non-stop or on 24-hour shifts1. Think of factories with a production line that never stops, warehouses that work around the clock, plants that never close. In such jobs the rota rotates in shifts, and when someone is missing or orders rise, the sixth day is the most common way to fill the gap.
The rule also has a step before the work. The business declares the sixth day on ERGANI II before you work it. With that declaration, the day is paid at the daily pay plus 40%. The order matters: the declaration comes before the day, not after you have worked it. If the rota changes at the last minute, ask whether the change was declared too. ERGANI II is the system where an employer declares to the state the details of its employees’ work, and here the sixth day.
Hotels and restaurants have other rules for the days of the week. If you work in tourism or catering, the 40% rule is not the one that concerns you. Check the collective agreement of your sector, and ask the payroll office which rule they apply. The agreements for catering and hotels are on the Collective agreements page.
Outside the rule: 30%
If you work a sixth day in a 5-day week outside the 40% rule, the day is paid at the daily pay plus 30%1. This concerns, for example, a business that does not run non-stop, or a sixth day that was not declared before the work.
The sixth day calculator asks you one question about this: “Does the business declare it on ERGANI?”. If you answer yes, it counts at 40%. If you answer no, it counts at 30%. If you do not know, ask the payroll office before the day, because the answer changes the amount. A simple question is enough: “Is the business a non-stop operation, and will the Saturday be declared on ERGANI?”. If the answer is yes to both, expect 40%.
The gap between the two rates is not large for one day, but it adds up. On a salary of €1,200, two sixth days at 40% bring €134.40, while at 30% they bring €124.80. Over a year of regular Saturdays, the gap reaches a few tens of euros. On the minimum wage, one sixth day at 30% brings €47.84, and at 40% €51.52.
What it brings on a monthly salary
Daily pay is the gross salary divided by 253. On a salary of €1,200, it is €48.00. The sixth day is paid in full: the daily pay and the premium, on top of your salary. The reason is simple. Your salary pays for the five days of your contract, so the sixth is not inside it. The amount is gross: it goes into the earnings of the month, together with your salary, and the deductions of the month come out of that.
| Gross salary | Daily pay | Sixth day at 40% | Sixth day at 30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| €920, the minimum | €36.80 | €51.52 | €47.84 |
| €1,000 | €40.00 | €56.00 | €52.00 |
| €1,200 | €48.00 | €67.20 | €62.40 |
| €1,500 | €60.00 | €84.00 | €78.00 |
There is an important difference here from Sundays and public holidays. There, a salaried employee gets only the premium, because the day is already in the salary. On the sixth day they also get the day, because their contract is for five. For the comparison, see the article Working on 28 October?.
The minimum wage of €920 applies from 1 April 20264. If that is your salary, each sixth day at 40% brings you €51.52 gross.
What it brings on a daily wage
If you are paid a daily wage, the sum is even simpler. The sixth day is paid at your daily wage plus 40%, or 30% outside the rule.
| Daily wage | Sixth day at 40% | Sixth day at 30% |
|---|---|---|
| €41.09, the minimum | €57.53 | €53.42 |
| €45 | €63.00 | €58.50 |
| €50 | €70.00 | €65.00 |
The minimum daily wage of €41.09 applies from 1 April 20264. It is not the minimum salary divided by 25, which makes €36.80. If you are paid by the day, your base is your own daily wage, as your contract states it.
An employee on a daily wage is credited with insurance days for the days they work. So if you work sixth days regularly, check your insurance days at e-EFKA every month and compare them with your rota. If a day is missing from your record, ask the payroll office.
The limit of 8 hours
The sixth day lasts up to 8 hours, and with no overtime on the same day1. It is not a day that can run on into the evening. If your shift on weekdays is 8 hours, the sixth day has the same length, and ends at the same time.
This has a practical meaning. The pay for the sixth day is one payment for the whole day, however many hours it lasts up to 8. Whether you work 6 hours or 8, you get the same daily pay with the premium. On a salary of €1,200, a sixth day of 6 hours still brings €67.20, while 6 extra hours would bring €51.84. If you are asked to stay beyond 8 hours, something is wrong with the rule, and you should ask how those hours will be recorded and paid.
If the sixth day has hours between 22:00 and 06:00, those hours also earn the night premium, 25% on top of the hourly pay. On a salary of €1,200, two such hours bring an extra €3.60. For night work, see the article on the clock change. And if the sixth day falls on a Sunday or public holiday, ask the payroll office to show you how they count the two premiums together.
A sixth day or extra hours
This is the part that surprises most people. The sixth day is paid at the daily pay, and the daily pay of a salary matches 6 hours and 40 minutes, because the formula spreads 40 hours over 6 days. Your own sixth day, though, often lasts 8 hours.
See it on a salary of €1,200. A sixth day of 8 hours at 40% is paid €67.20. The same 8 hours, if they were extra hours at 20%, would be paid €69.12. And 8 plain hours at the hourly pay of €7.20 come to €57.60, more than the plain daily pay of €48.00.
What does this mean? That 40% sounds bigger than 20%, but it counts on a smaller base. For a sixth day of 8 hours, the pay is close to what the same hours would bring as extra hours, and a little below it. If the sixth day is shorter, for example 6 hours, the picture shifts in favour of the sixth day, because the pay stays the same.
There is also a difference in time. Extra hours are added to your five days, and they tire you during the week. The sixth day takes a Saturday, but leaves your weekdays as they were. Both have a cost, just a different one.
You do not choose how your work is recorded. But it is worth knowing what a sixth day is worth in hours, when you are asked for one and when you think about it.
What it brings in a year
In many factories and warehouses, the sixth day is not an exception. It happens twice a month, every month, except the month of your leave. That makes 22 sixth days a year.
On a salary of €1,200 at 40%, the 22 days bring €1,478.40 a year, on top of your salaries. At 30%, they bring €1,372.80. On the minimum wage at 40%, they bring €1,133.44. These amounts are more than a whole salary.
This has two sides. One is the money, which is a lot. The other is time: 22 Saturdays a year is almost half the Saturdays you have. Only you know whether the trade is worth it. What you must know for certain is that, if you accept it, it is paid correctly. A mistake in the sixth-day line, such as the missing day, repeats itself every time.
Before you say yes: what to ask
The sixth day is usually asked for at a few days’ notice. Before you accept, it is worth settling four things, once, for all the times to come.
Does the business run non-stop or on 24-hour shifts? This decides whether the 40% rule applies. If the business closes at night or at weekends, the 40% rule probably does not concern you.
Is the day declared on ERGANI II before the work? Without that declaration, the premium is 30%. Ask the payroll office, and keep the answer in writing.
How many hours will it last? The sixth day is up to 8 hours. If the rota shows more, ask how they will be paid.
Will it be paid in full? The answer should be yes: the daily pay and the premium, on top of your salary. If you are told you will get “the premium”, you know something is missing.
How it shows on your payslip
On the payslip, the sixth day appears among the earnings, usually on a line of its own, with the days and the amount. The check is simple. Divide the amount by the days and then by your daily pay. If you get 1.40, the day was paid at 40%. If you get 1.30, at 30%. If you get 0.40, only the premium was paid, and the day itself is missing.
The last case is the most common mistake, because it looks like the way a Sunday is paid. But the sixth day is paid in full. On a salary of €1,200, the premium alone is €19.20, while the whole day is €67.20. If you see the first amount, ask for the second.
Ask too whether the day was declared on ERGANI II before the work. If it was, and the business runs non-stop, the ratio should come to 1.40. Keep the rota of the month as well, with the Saturdays you worked, so you can check how many days you should see.
On a daily wage, the check has one more step. First check that the working days of the month include the sixth days. Then find their line and divide by your daily wage. The ratio should come to 1.40 for each day, or 1.30 outside the rule.
An example
Lefteris is 33 and works as a machine operator at a food packaging plant in Sindos, outside Thessaloniki. The plant runs on 24-hour shifts, and Lefteris has a 5-day week of 40 hours, on a gross salary of €1,200. In November the company asks him to work two Saturdays, 7 and 21 November, from 06:00 to 14:00.
Step 1: the daily pay. €1,200 divided by 25 makes €48.00.
Step 2: the rule. The plant runs on 24-hour shifts, and Lefteris asks whether the two Saturdays are declared on ERGANI II before the work. The answer is yes. So the 40% applies.
Step 3: one day. Each Saturday is paid in full: €67.20. Of that, €48.00 is the day and €19.20 the premium.
Step 4: the month. The two Saturdays bring €134.40 on top of his November salary. Had they not been declared and been paid at 30%, they would bring €124.80.
Step 5: the hours. Each Saturday lasts 8 hours, from 06:00 to 14:00. That is within the limit, and there are no night hours. Lefteris knows that if he were asked to stay until 16:00, those hours would not fall within the sixth-day rule, and he would ask before staying.
Step 6: the payslip. On his November payslip he sees a line “sixth day”, 2 days, at €38.40. He divides by the days and by his daily pay, and gets 0.40. The day itself is missing. He sends a message to the payroll office with the two Saturdays and his sum, and the difference goes into his December pay.
Step 7: December. The company asks for one Saturday in December as well. Lefteris accepts, but first asks the payroll office to record the sixth day in full, at a ratio of 1.40, so the November mistake does not happen again.
In the calculator, Lefteris chooses “Salary”, enters €1,200, 2 sixth days and “Yes” for the ERGANI declaration. The calculator shows him the same amount as step 4, as “gross on top of your salary”.
The mistakes that cost
Accepting only the premium. The sixth day is paid in full, with the daily pay and the premium. If the amount is only 40% of your daily pay, the day is missing.
Mixing up 40% and 30%. The 40% needs a non-stop business and a declaration on ERGANI II before the work. Ask before the day which of the two applies to you.
Counting the sixth day by the hour. The sixth day is paid at the daily pay, not by the hours you worked. If you count it by the hour, you will get a different amount from the one you will see.
Staying beyond 8 hours without asking. The sixth day is up to 8 hours, with no overtime. If you are asked for more, settle how they will be recorded before you stay.
Applying the rule to restaurants and hotels. Other rules apply there. Check the collective agreement of your sector.
Forgetting that your contract must be for a 5-day week. If your contract is for a 6-day week, Saturday is a normal day, inside your salary. The sixth-day rule concerns the 5-day week.
What the law says
The sixth working day, together with night work, Sundays and public holidays, is set by articles 150, 191, 192, 196 and 219 of Presidential Decree 62/2025, the Labour Code. That is where the 40% premium for non-stop businesses, with a declaration on ERGANI II before the work, the 30% premium outside that rule, and the limit of 8 hours with no overtime come from1.
An employee’s daily pay is the salary divided by 25, as KEPEA, the labour institute of the GSEE trade union confederation, explains it3. Extra hours and overtime are set by article 194 of the same decree, as amended by Law 5239/20252. The minimum wage of €920 and the minimum daily wage of €41.09 apply from 1 April 2026, under joint decision 8934/20264.
To find what the sixth days of the month bring on your own salary or daily wage, enter your details in the Sixth day calculator. It also asks whether the day is declared on ERGANI, to choose between 40% and 30%.
