Updated: April 2026
When employees travel for business, the easiest way to reimburse them for travel expenses is with a per diem rate.
Understanding per diem rates for Greek employees doesn’t just make expense reporting and business travel easier — it’s actually the law! Per diem rates are required for employees staying overnight in another location.
What are per diem rates?
Per diem meaning “per day” refers to a daily allowance given to employees to cover basic expenses, such as food and incidentals, during business travel. In some cases, per diem rates may cover accommodation or local transport as well.
These lump sum payments are intended to cover expenses of business travel without requiring your employees to track and report every expense. This requires much less administrative work from your entire team, from travelling employees to finance teams.
How are per diem rates calculated in Greece?
For Greek employees, per diem rates are simple. Instead of being calculated based on trip duration or city, all employers must provide a per diem allowance based on the minimum daily wage in Greece.
Per diem must be paid any time the employee stays overnight on business travel.
What’s covered by per diem rates in Greece
Per diem rates in Greece may cover:
food (meals and drinks)
accommodation at the place of travel
local transportation
incidentals
Per diem rates are not intended to cover travel to and from the destination.
What are per diem rates in Greece?
Per diem rates in Greece are set by the Labour Law Code. For every night an employee is away from home, they must be paid a per diem of at least:
one day of the minimum daily wage (€37.07 per day), or
1/25th of the minimum monthly wage for salaried workers (€33.2 per day)
This rule does not change based on:
the employee’s individual wage
the city or country of destination
the duration of the business trip day
These rates can be adjusted depending on what is covered.
Per diem rates for international business travel
Greek employment law doesn’t set specific rates for individual countries. Instead, the Greek per diem law for domestic travel still applies.
Of course, employers may choose to pay more than the minimum, especially for international travel. In this case, the per diem rates set by the EU can serve as a helpful guide for employers:
The full list can be consulted from the EU’s current per diem rates.
FAQs on Greece Per Diem Rates
- Per diem rates are required to be paid by labour laws in Greece, so employees do not need receipts to substantiate their expenses. Employers may also choose to reimburse employees directly for travel expenses, in which case, receipts or invoices should be provided to document expenses.
- Per diem allowances in Greece are considered part of the employee’s base income. This means that the per diem payments are added to the employee’s annual remuneration and taxed according to standard Greek tax rates.If the employer is reimbursing the employee for documented travel expenses, such as accommodation, food, and travel expenses substantiated by a receipt or invoice, these reimbursements do not count toward the employee’s taxable income.
- In Greece, per diem rates are paid after the trip was taken, depending on the length of the trip (in days). These allowances are paid within the standard monthly remuneration for the employee.
Making business travel management easy
Per diem rates can make travel expense management much easier. There aren’t any receipts to track, no varying expenses to manage. Instead, there’s a single, fixed allowance that you can budget for and allocate.
However, there are still many other travel logistics to manage, such as booking accommodations, managing travel itineraries for employees, planning flight or rail trips, and more. For these, a travel management tool like Perk helps your team plan, book, and manage employees’ travel with ease. Plus, our integrations with third-party expense management providers allow you to easily connect and track business travel expenses.
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Written by
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Growth Marketing Director
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