A difference of up to €644 has been recorded in new primary pensions between the public and private sectors, according to the latest available data from the “HELIOS” report for May 2026. The average expenditure for new finalized public sector pension decisions reached €1,407.23, while for those insured under the former IKA (Social Insurance Institute) it stood at €763.
Read: September 2026 pensions: When will payments be made — full schedule of dates
The gap thus reaches €644.23 per month, with the new average public sector pension being 84% higher. This picture, however, does not mean that civil servants are subject to a different calculation formula than private sector workers. For pensions calculated under the current insurance framework, the primary pension consists of the sum of the national pension and the contributory pension.
Public and private sector pensions: How they are calculated
The contributory pension is linked to pensionable earnings, years of insurance coverage, and replacement rates. The question, therefore, is not why the public sector uses a different calculation method, but why the insurance histories of these two categories of workers lead, on average, to such different outcomes. The reasons are specific and are as follows:
- Years of insurance: The length of insurance coverage plays a decisive role. As the number of years increases, so does the replacement rate of the contributory pension. Law 4,670/2020 significantly boosted replacement rates for those with more than 30 years of coverage. For 40 years of insurance, the total contributory pension replacement rate reaches 50.01%, compared to 42.80% under the previous regime. Civil servants leaving the public sector typically show long and uninterrupted insurance histories, which significantly affects the final pension amount.
- Final earnings: The second key variable is the salary on which the contributory pension is calculated. The e-EFKA clarifies that pensionable earnings are derived from the income or salary on which insurance contributions were paid from 2002 up to the day before the retirement application. Therefore, higher earnings and more years of contribution payments lead — all else being equal — to a higher contributory pension. This largely explains why average new pensions differ, even when the insurance formula is the same.
- Coverage gaps: In the private sector, periods of unemployment, job changes between different employers, part-time employment, and lower wages are more common. All of these can reduce either the total years of insurance coverage or the average earnings taken into account for the contributory pension. Similarly, for the self-employed, the level of future pension is tied to the insurance category chosen and the contributions paid. Since 2020, freelancers, self-employed individuals, and farmers select an insurance category, with the choice renewable each year.
- Real-world differences: The May 2026 data paint a broader picture of the pension system. A total of 4,769,930 pensions were paid, of which 2,916,423 were primary pensions, 1,407,633 were supplementary pensions, and 445,874 were dividend-type benefits. The average primary pension across the entire system stood at €865.99, while for old-age primary pensions the average expenditure was €977.44. Particularly notable is that approximately 1,128,550 pensioners — out of a total of 1,970,340 — receive a primary pension of up to €1,000, while around 265,000 do not exceed €500. This picture shows that the public sector–IKA gap should not be interpreted as a general rule for every pensioner, but rather as the average outcome of specific categories of new pension decisions.
- What about the national pension? The national pension amount is a common baseline for insured individuals who meet the same qualifying conditions. As of January 1, 2026, the full national pension stands at €446.87, for 20 years of insurance coverage and 40 years of legal and permanent residence in Greece, with proportional reductions applied when the relevant conditions are not fully met. Therefore, the bulk of the difference between new public sector and IKA pensions lies not in the national pension component, but primarily in the contributory portion.
- Old and new pensions: Another factor worth noting is that the current insurance system has undergone many changes over the years. Older retirees were not all pensioned off under the same rules that apply today. The e-EFKA applies different transitional arrangements and recalculations depending on the date of retirement and the individual’s insurance history. For this reason, it is not reliable to compare an old average public sector pension with a new average IKA pension. The €644 “gap” is real in terms of the new finalized decisions data for May 2026, but it is not the result of a different mathematical formula. It primarily reflects different insurance histories: more or fewer years of coverage, higher or lower pensionable earnings, greater or lesser continuity of employment, and — for the self-employed — different insurance category choices.
Originally published in Apogeumatini
