Working on 28 October in Greece? Holiday pay explained

There are nine compulsory public holidays: 1 and 6 January, 25 March, Easter Monday, 1 May, 15 August, 28 October, and 25 and 26 December. On all of them, anyone who works gets the same premium as on a Sunday, 75% on top of the daily pay1.

24 and 31 December are not on the list, and neither are other celebrations that close schools or public offices. If you work on such a day, you are paid as on any working day, unless your sector agreement says otherwise.

In 2026, 28 October falls on a Wednesday, so it is a normal working day for anyone on a 5-day week. That matters. When a holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, many people would not have worked anyway. A Wednesday holiday concerns almost every employee: either they work with a premium, or they stay at home without losing pay, if they are on a monthly salary.

Of the 9 holidays of 2026, six have already passed. After 28 October come 25 and 26 December, a Friday and a Saturday. They have their own article, Working at Christmas?.

An employee on a monthly salary is paid for the whole month, however many holidays it has. The day of the holiday is already inside the salary. So if you work, you are not paid for the day a second time. You get the 75% premium on your daily pay, on top of your salary1.

Daily pay is the gross salary divided by 252. On a salary of €1,000, the daily pay is €40.00, and the holiday premium is €30.00. Here is what it brings on four salaries:

The premium is gross. It goes into your October earnings, together with your salary, and the deductions of the month come out of that. The “double pay” that many people talk about does not apply to an employee on a monthly salary. What applies is smaller, but fixed and easy to check.

If you do not work on the holiday, you lose nothing from your salary. October is paid in full, with the Wednesday of the holiday inside it. But you get no premium either, because the premium pays for the work on the holiday.

One more thing. The premium does not change with whether your week has five or six days. It counts the whole day of the holiday, with the same daily pay of the salary divided by 25.

An employee on a daily wage is paid for the days they work. If they work the holiday, they get the daily wage for the day and a 75% premium on top of it1. That is why their amount is larger than that of a colleague on a salary, for exactly the same day.

The minimum daily wage is €41.09 from 1 April 20263. It is the base for people paid by the day, and it is not the minimum salary divided by 25.

The comparison with a salaried colleague looks unfair, but it is not. A salaried employee loses nothing if they do not work the holiday, because their salary comes in full. An employee on a daily wage is paid for the day when they work it. For what happens when they do not work the holiday, see the article A public holiday off work.

For the sums of pay, a public holiday and a Sunday are the same. Both earn 75% on top of the daily pay, and on both a salaried employee gets only the premium, while an employee on a daily wage also gets the day1. That is why the site has one calculator for both.

There is one difference worth knowing. Anyone who works on a Sunday is also entitled to a day of rest during the week. That rule, as the calculator states it, concerns Sundays. If you want a day off in place of the holiday, the answer lies in your contract or in an agreement with your employer, and it is best put in writing.

Sundays come every week, while public holidays are few. So in jobs that open on Sundays, such as restaurants and hotels, the Sundays of the year bring far more than the holidays. But both count the same way, and both are checked the same way on your payslip.

Here is a detail that costs money. The law counts the Sunday and holiday premium on the legal daily wage. The legal wage is the daily wage of the minimum, or of the collective agreement of your sector if there is one. If your own salary is higher, the difference does not necessarily go into the sum.

Take a salary of €1,000 in a job where the legal salary is the minimum, €920. If the premium counts on your own salary, it is €30.00. If it counts on the legal one, it is €27.60. For one day the gap is small. Over a year of Sundays and holidays it becomes noticeable.

If your sector has a collective agreement, the legal wage is the daily wage of that agreement for your job and your years of service, not the minimum. Restaurants and hotels, for example, have agreements of their own, and you can find them with their pay scales on the Collective agreements page.

So what do you do? Look at your contract or the company rules, if there are any. Some agreements, and some employers, count the premium on the real salary. If your payslip shows the smaller amount, ask the payroll office which base they use and why. The Sunday and holiday calculator counts on the amount you give it.

The premium applies to people who work fewer hours too. Your daily pay is your part-time salary divided by 25, and the premium is 75% of it.

On the minimum wage for four hours a day, five days a week, the salary is €460 and the daily pay €18.40. The holiday premium is €13.80. On six hours a day, 30 hours a week, the salary is €690, the daily pay €27.60 and the premium €20.70.

The amount is smaller than for full time, but the share is the same. If you are told that part-time work “has no holidays”, that is wrong. The holiday counts for everyone, on their own daily pay. For the rest of part-time pay, see the article Part-time work, four hours a day.

The holiday does not stop the other premiums. If you work hours between 22:00 and 06:00, each such hour earns 25% on top of your hourly pay, and that adds to the holiday premium1. Hourly pay is the salary divided by 25, times 6, divided by 402.

On a salary of €1,000, if your shift on 28 October closes at midnight, the two hours from 22:00 bring an extra €3.00. The same holds for the shift from Tuesday to Wednesday: the hours after midnight are already holiday hours, and they are night hours too. From midnight to 06:00 there are 6 hours. On a salary of €1,000, they bring €9.00 for the night and €27.00 for the holiday, as the night work calculator counts them. For all the rules of night work, see the article on the clock change and night work.

If the holiday takes you above 40 hours in the week, the extra hours are extra work or overtime, each with its own premium4. A week with a holiday on Wednesday and a normal rota on the other days does not create extra hours on its own. But if you are asked to work the Saturday as well, in a 5-day week that is a sixth day, with a rule of its own. The article The sixth day of the week explains it.

The Sunday and holiday calculator counts whole days. If you worked only a few hours of the holiday, ask the payroll office to show you how they count the premium for those hours.

One holiday looks like a small amount. But look at a year in a job that never closes, such as a hotel or a clinic. On a salary of €1,000, if you work all 9 holidays, their premiums come to €270.00 a year.

If you also work two Sundays a month, you collect 24 Sundays a year. Their premiums are €720.00. On a daily wage of €45, the 9 holidays alone bring €303.75 in premiums, on top of the daily wages of those days. Together with the holidays, the amount comes close to a whole salary, and it is money many people never check.

So when you compare two jobs, count this as well. A job with a smaller salary but regular Sundays and holidays can bring as much in a year as a job with a higher salary and free weekends. Or it may not, if the premiums are not paid properly. The amount on paper is worth something only if it reaches your account.

The best moment to settle the pay for the holiday is before the holiday. Afterwards, every conversation gets harder. Three questions are enough, and no serious employer will mind them.

Which amount does the premium count on? Your own salary or the legal daily wage? If your salary is above the minimum, the answer changes the amount.

How are the hours recorded? If your shift goes past 22:00, or if you stay beyond your normal hours, ask whether those hours are recorded separately, with their night and extra-hours premiums.

When is it paid? Usually with the salary of the month. If your employer pays later, find out when, so you know when to look for the line on your payslip.

If your employer does not answer, or the premium never arrives, you can turn to the Labour Inspectorate. Before you go that far, a written message to the payroll office with the day, the hours and your sum solves most cases. Mistakes in premiums are usually just mistakes, and they are corrected in the next salary.

The holiday premium appears among the earnings, usually on a separate line with the day or the hours. If you are paid a salary, look for a line with an amount equal to 75% of your daily pay. If you are paid a daily wage, look for the day among your working days and the premium beside it.

The check is simple. Divide the amount of the line by your daily pay. If you get 0.75, it is right on the basis of your salary. If you get less, it was probably counted on the legal daily wage, and it is worth asking. If there is no line at all, the premium is missing.

On a daily wage you make two checks. First count the working days of the month, and 28 October must be among them. Then find the line of the premium and divide it by your daily wage. It should give 0.75 for each holiday you worked.

Payment usually comes with the October salary, at the end of the month or early in November, whenever your employer pays. Keep a note of the day and the hours you worked on 28 October, with a photo of the rota. If you need to discuss it, you will have the facts.