Most young foreigners seeking work in Greece find work in bars in tourist areas. In general, bar owners look for people who speak the languages of the tourists who come to a specific area. If you are looking for work in Greece, your best option is to go where your fellow citizens tend to congregate. The Ionian Islands attract the British and some Italians; Crete has a large concentration of German travelers; Rhodes is another popular island with the British. Americans go everywhere, but they are frequently found in Crete, Santorini, and Mykonos.
The legality of getting a job in Greece
EU citizens can legally work in Greece. Non-EU citizens are unlikely to be able to legally work in Greece in part-time and short-term positions. If you are looking for a job in a major international corporation, they will help you with the legality of working in Greece.
The reality of getting a summer job in Greece
Many part-time and short-term jobs in Greece are in establishments that do not want to pay full employment taxes. Even EU citizens can be offered a paid job ‘under the table’. The risk with these jobs is that you may be arrested and sent home and denied entry to Greece in the future. And in these situations, an employee may have virtually no option to get paid if the landlord does not pay.
Labor competition in Greece
Due to currency problems and home payment rates, some nations have an abundance of young, often well-educated people who want to spend a summer in Greece. Many employees are from Poland, Romania, Albania and former Soviet bloc nations. For many of them, the low wage rates in Greece may be slightly better than what they would find at home, and they will often work harder and longer than their counterparts in other nations. There are also job placement agencies that actively recruit from these countries and provide workers with transportation to and from Greece.
Many return year after year.
Average salary for summer jobs in Greece Payment
If you are thinking of a payment equivalent to what you would get for a similar job in your country, think again. Hourly wages are often as low as two to three euros, and some places may even expect you to work just for tips. Others may (illegally) demand action. While service jobs can benefit from tips, in most cases they will still not equal pay rates in the country.
Some summer jobs in Greece will provide a place to stay and some food, and if that’s the case, surviving on the low wages is at least possible. In places like Ios, there are cheap hotels that rent shared rooms to summer workers for 14 euros or so per night.
Average working hours in Greece
Many summer jobs in Greece are just that: summer jobs. Employers often expect an employee to work literally every day of the summer season, often for 10 or 12 hours a day.
Teach English in Greece
There are several places that suggest that you can take a short training course with them in Greece at your expense and then go teach English in a job that they help you find. Some of these are scams, plain and simple. There is no shortage of English speakers in Greece, and English is taught in schools starting in the third grade. Legitimate job opportunities to teach English are relatively few, and will generally go to credentialed teachers and others with extensive or specialized experience rather than a casual young native English speaker.
