Mean and median wage

Classic pita gyros per month

The unit is the classic pita gyro, the one the Index measures: each year's price is restated in today's composition so like compares with like.

The minimum covers 1976-2026. The mean starts in 2000 and the median has 5 points, because that is where their sources stop. Gaps stay gaps: nothing is interpolated or extended backwards.

They also stop short of the Index, for a reason. The mean reaches 2025, a year behind 2026. The median comes from a four-yearly survey published about two years after its reference year: after 2022, the next point covers 2026 and is not expected before 2028.

• Minimum · 1976-2026
• Mean · 2000-2025
• Median (points) · 2006-2022

From 2000 to 2025 the mean loses −46.5% and the minimum −45.6%: the loss is not a minimum-wage phenomenon. From 2006 to 2022 the median loses −43.2% against −36.1% for the minimum.

The conclusion does not hang on the unit. In era gyros, with no composition restatement, the same changes are −48.8% for the mean, −47.9% for the minimum, and −42.7% against −35.5% across the median's years.

The same values as a table

The table starts in 2000, where the first of the two new wages starts. The years 1976-1999 have only a minimum wage; why the others are missing is on Gaps. The minimum wage payroll is broken down on Minimum Wage.

Where the fall came from

The index is a quotient, so every change has two causes the number itself hides. This splits how far the wage moved from how far the classic gyro price moved over the same period.

The fall is not a wage cut. From 2000 to 2025 the minimum moved +100.1% and the mean +96.7%, while the classic gyro price moved +268.3%. Wages roughly doubled and it was not enough.

The gap between median and minimum is purely a wage story: from 2006 to 2022 both faced the same +87.7% price rise, but the minimum moved +20.2% and the median only +6.7%.

The identity holds on the unrounded quotient; the integer index in the table can differ by one rounding unit.

The spread around the median

The same survey publishes the first and ninth deciles: the lowest and highest tenth of full-time employees. Measured dispersion, in the same unit.

All three fell. From 2006 to 2022 the bottom tenth moved −41.9%, the median −43.2% and the top tenth −46.8%. The ratio between the ends went from 3.59x to 3.29x: the distance between the ends barely moved while the whole range came down.

This is not societal inequality. It covers only full-time employees in the surveyed sectors: no unemployed, part-time, self-employed or undeclared work.

Who, inside the same median

Men and women

The gap narrowed, from 18.7% in 2006 to 9.9% in 2022. Not because women rose: in gyros they lost −39.7% and men −45.6%. The convergence came from above.

Median by sex, same sector definition and full-time only. It also reflects different occupations, sectors and seniority, not pay for the same work.

Under 30

The young lost more. From 2006 to 2018 the under-30s moved −39.6% and the overall median −34.6%. Their share went from 70.1% to 64.7% of the median.

Median for full-time employees under 30. Age classes change definition between waves and 2022 publishes no age breakdown, so there is no comparable older class and no 2022 point.

What income tax takes off

The index stops before income tax, and the page declares that as a limit. For the mean wage we can measure it instead of asserting it, because the same source publishes the tax. For the minimum we cannot yet, which is why the two do not share a chart.

• 2000: 971 before tax, 907 after — a −6.6% difference.
• 2025: 519 before tax, 437 after — a −15.8% difference.

The burden grew over time, so the convention does not merely lift the levels: it UNDERSTATES THE FALL. After tax the mean loses −51.8% from 2000 to 2025, against −46.6% before tax.

What this page does not say

• It is not a measure of inequality. The distance between the lines also depends on each source's population. It is not the gap between two people.
• Before income tax, and that is not neutral. Income tax is near zero at the minimum wage and is not at the median, so the two new lines are an upper bound rather than take-home income.
• A level is not a rate. A median wage also moves with workforce composition: it can rise because low-paid jobs disappeared.
• The Index does not change. The published Index remains the minimum wage. It is read from the same series here, never recomputed.

Sources

Mean · earn_nt_net

Modelled single person without children at 100% of average earnings (Taxing Wages framework). A mean on a stylised profile, not a measured distribution. Source last updated: 2026-09-04.

Median · earn_ses_annual · B-S_X_O

Full-time employees in enterprises with at least ten employees, industry, construction and services except public administration. Four-yearly survey; this sector definition has no 2002 observation for Greece. Source last updated: 2026-02-09.

The contribution rate is the one the minimum wage already uses. Eurostat publishes contributions separately, which makes it an independent witness: largest divergence 1.38 points. The figures are counted in classic gyros.