How the pension is calculated
The old-age pension is the sum of two amounts: the national pension, reduced if insurance or residence years fall short, and the contributory pension, built from your average earnings times a scale of accrual rates that steps up by year of insurance. This page sets out both halves, sourced from Law 4387/2016 and e-EFKA.
The national pension: two independent reduction axes
The national pension starts from its full amount — 446,87 € — and is reduced on two independent, additive axes:
- 2 % for every year short of 20 years of insurance, down to a floor of 15 years;
- 1/40 for every year short of 40 years of permanent, lawful residence in Greece.
The two axes are independent and compound: where both fall short, both reductions apply to the same base amount.
The contributory pension: average earnings times a service-year scale
The contributory pension is built from the revalued average of your monthly pensionable earnings over your whole insured career, applied through a scale of accrual rates that rises by year of insurance — from 0,77 % in the first years to 2,00 % in the last.
| Insurance years | Rate per year |
|---|---|
| 0–15 | 0,77 % |
| 15,01–18 | 0,84 % |
| 18,01–21 | 0,90 % |
| 21,01–24 | 0,96 % |
| 24,01–27 | 1,03 % |
| 27,01–30 | 1,21 % |
| 30,01–33 | 1,42 % |
| 33,01–36 | 1,59 % |
| 36,01–39 | 1,80 % |
| 39,01+ and above | 2,00 % |
The resulting contributory pension cannot exceed the pensionable earnings it was computed from.
Uprating
The pension in payment is uprated each year by a coefficient of 50 % GDP change / 50 % price change, capped so it never exceeds the price change itself. See the overview for the ceiling this amount is measured against.