Among other things, their access to unemployment benefits has been restricted, schools have been closed and discounted fares on public traffic discontinued. The most difficult thing was legislation about a minimum wage for young employees. The idea was that businesses would be motivated to hire more young staffers because they would not need to be paid so much – but the plan did not have the desired results. And in the meantime Greece has become one of the countries with the highest rate of youth unemployment.
Looking into the data supplied by the country’s social security agency, the EFKA, the size of the problem becomes clear. A 24-year-old earns €380 on average while an 18-year-old only earns €265. Compare that to 2009, when the 18-year-old could earn an average of €548. This means that this young Greek has lost almost half of the money they used to earn. And in the age group of 25 to 29, they have lost almost a third. The young people of Greece consider this development to be the result of the financial crisis and as long as that situation doesn’t improve, they will continue to have this opinion.
*Source: TUI Stiftung, TUI Survey 2017