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Greece becomes first EU country to introduce a six-day working week
- downrightmike 2y agoausterity sure seems to be working well.
- gnabgib 2y agoDiscussion (87 points, 11 days ago, 150 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40761505 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40761505
- s1artibartfast 2y agoSeems largely reasonable. employers can request a sixth working day, but it pays at 140% the five day rate. This is essentially how it works in the US, arguably better. The US requires wage workers to get 150% if going over 40 hours, but had no restrictions on the number of days per week. The interesting part of this to me is that employers would rather pay overtime rates than higher more staff. I wonder if Greece is like the US where there are major fixed taxes and benefit costs tied to each employee. Alternatively, it is possible that despite the high unemployment, workers with the needed skillset are in high demand. Either way it seems that Greece has some structural problems. It reminds me of an anecdote a Greek friend told me. In Most of Europe cars leaving a traffic circle have priority. In Greece it is cars that enter the traffic circle that have priority, leading to congestion. However, this isnt a uniform rule, so you have to check at each traffic roundabout to see what the policy is for that one.