Labour Minister Vroutsis: Reducing non-wage costs a central government policy

Private-sector workers will see their salaries boosted by the reduction in their social insurance contributions by three percentage points in 2021, starting on January 1, Labour Minister Yiannis Vroutsis said in statements to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) on Wednesday. He stressed that the reduction of non-wage costs was a "central choice, because it boosts the three-point agenda: protect the labour market, boost employee incomes, increase job positions."

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The reduction will bring social insurance contributions down to 36.66 percent from 39.66 percent previously, since the 0.9 percentage point reduction in June, he said. The minister clarified that the reduction will be on contributions levied for third parties and not affect income-dependent contributions to main and supplementary pensions.

According to Vroutsis, the reduction will boost the labour market by giving employers incentives to hire, making it the most realistic and effective policy for increasing employment, increasing employee incomes and reducing the non-wage cost for businesses in order to lessen unemployment.

The reduction will apply to employees working for entities that are not public services, decentralised regional and local authorities and their related legal entities, public-sector legal entities and private-sector legal entities with general government.