Last reviewed: 21 September 2026

An English teacher salary in Greece typically runs €800 to €1,150 gross a month at a private language academy, against a statutory minimum of €920 gross since April 2026. The figure looks low, but Greece’s 2026 tax reform removed income tax entirely for workers under 25 earning up to €20,000, which changes the net picture sharply.

Key takeaways

• Typical frontistirio pay is €800 to €1,150 gross a month for a full academic-year contract, paid across 14 payments rather than 12.
• The statutory minimum wage rose to €920 gross a month on 1 April 2026, so a full-time academy contract cannot legally pay less.
• From tax year 2026, workers aged up to 25 pay zero income tax on the first €20,000. Workers aged 26 to 30 pay 9 per cent on the €10,000 to €20,000 band instead of 20 per cent.
• Because almost every TEFL salary in Greece sits under €20,000, those two age bands capture most first-time teachers.
• Social insurance contributions still apply at every age and are the main deduction for an under-25 teacher.
• Private one-to-one tuition at €15 to €30 an hour is where most teachers close the gap between academy pay and comfortable living.

What does a Greek language academy actually pay?

A full-time frontistirio contract in Athens or Thessaloniki generally lands between €800 and €1,150 gross a month during the September to June academic year. Pay is usually calculated from an hourly rate against a contracted number of teaching hours, commonly 20 to 25 contact hours a week, and the figure is nearly always quoted gross. Greek salaries are conventionally paid over 14 instalments a year, with extra payments at Christmas, Easter and the start of the summer holiday, so an annual figure divided by 12 will overstate what lands in your account in an ordinary month.

The floor under all of this is the national minimum wage, which increased from €880 to €920 gross a month on 1 April 2026. Any full-time contract has to meet it. Where a sectoral collective agreement sets a higher rate, that higher rate applies instead, which is the usual position for established academy teachers with several years of service.

How does the 2026 tax reform change the net figure?

Greece rewrote its income tax scale with effect from tax year 2026, and the change is unusually favourable to people at the start of a teaching career. The Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance tax guide sets out the new scale: 9 per cent to €10,000, 20 per cent from €10,000 to €20,000, 26 per cent from €20,000 to €30,000, then 34, 39 and 44 per cent above that.

Two age-based rules sit on top. For taxpayers up to 25 years of age, the rates for the first two brackets, covering income from zero to €20,000, are set to zero. For taxpayers aged 26 to 30, the second bracket rate drops to 9 per cent. A general tax reduction of €777 applies to a taxpayer without dependent children, tapering above €12,000 of employment income.

Put those numbers against a teaching salary and the effect is large. A frontistirio salary of €1,000 gross a month over 14 payments is €14,000 a year, comfortably inside the €20,000 threshold. A 24-year-old teacher on that contract pays no Greek income tax at all. A 28-year-old on the same contract pays 9 per cent of the portion above €10,000 rather than 20 per cent. A 35-year-old pays the standard scale.

What does that look like month to month?

The table below models the same gross salary across three ages, before the general tax reduction and before any personal circumstances. Social insurance is deducted at every age and is the reason an under-25 teacher does not take home the full gross.

Scale and age rules as published by the Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance for tax years 2026 onwards. Illustrative only. Actual withholding depends on dependants, the €777 tax reduction and your individual circumstances. This is general information, not tax advice.

Does the low salary go further in Greece?

Substantially, and this is the argument that keeps the Greek market attractive despite the headline figure. Rent outside central Athens and Thessaloniki is among the lowest in western and southern Europe, public transport in Athens is cheap and extensive, and food costs are low if you shop and eat the way local households do. A teacher on €1,000 gross in Thessaloniki generally has more disposable income than the euro figure suggests to someone reading it in Dublin.

The honest counterweight is that Athens rents have risen sharply since 2022, driven by short-term letting, and the gap between a central flat and a suburban one is now wide. Our Athens guide goes into which districts academy teachers actually live in and what that costs. For a cross-border comparison, our breakdown of English teacher salary in Hungary covers a market with a similar pay level and a very different tax structure.

How do teachers top up academy pay?

Private one-to-one tuition is the standard answer and it is close to universal. Greek families already pay for extra tuition as a matter of course, so demand is not something you have to create, and rates of €15 to €30 an hour mean four or five weekly students can add meaningfully to an academy salary. Business English delivered in-company pays at the upper end of that range and is concentrated in Athens.

Two things are worth knowing before you start. Home tutoring is itself a notified activity under Greek law, covered by the same Ministry register as academy teaching, so it is not an informal side arrangement in the eyes of the state. And income from self-employed activity is taxed under a separate business-income scale with a minimum presumptive income rule, so tutoring income needs to be declared properly rather than treated as cash in hand. Our guide to the requirements for teaching English in Greece covers the registration side in detail.

Frequently asked questions

Where this sits in our Greece guides

This post covers pay and tax. For who is hiring and when, start with our guide to English teaching jobs in Greece, then read the requirements for teaching English in Greece for the Ministry register. Every destination we cover is listed on the teach English jobs pillar page, and current pay by country in local currency and euro is on our index of English teacher salaries abroad.

Ready to start?

Pay in Greek academies is negotiated against your certificate and your exam-prep experience, so the qualification you arrive with affects the number on the contract. Our accredited 120-hour TEFL course covers the baseline, and our Level 5 TEFL diploma supports a higher starting rate. If you are unsure what Level 5 means to an employer, our explainer on Level 5 TEFL in Ireland and who recognises it is the place to begin.

Sources: Hellenic Ministry of Economy and Finance, income taxation tax guide; EUGO Greece, procedure 881208; European Commission, Your Europe: working in another EU country. We are not tax advisers; confirm your own position with a Greek accountant or the tax authority before relying on any figure here.