Monday, February 13, 2012

Why is Greece broke? Hairdressers in Greece can retire at 50 because they have a hazardous job.


Much of the reason for Greece's financial crisis is an overextended social net. Hairdressers and musicians can retire as early as 50 because they are deemed to have hazardous jobs.
ATHENS Vasia Veremi may be only 28, but as a hairdresser in Athens, she is keenly aware that, under a current law that treats her job as hazardous to her health, she has the right to retire with a full pension at age 50.

“I use a hundred different chemicals every day — dyes, ammonia, you name it,” she said. “You think there’s no risk in that?”

“People should be able to retire at a decent age,” Ms. Veremi added. “We are not made to live 150 years.”

Perhaps not, but it is still difficult to explain to outsiders why the Greek government has identified at least 580 job categories deemed to be hazardous enough to merit retiring early — at age 50 for women and 55 for men...

As a consequence of decades of bargains struck between strong unions and weak governments, Greece has promised early retirement to about 700,000 employees, or 14 percent of its work force, giving it an average retirement age of 61, one of the lowest in Europe.

The law includes dangerous jobs like coal mining and bomb disposal. But it also covers radio and television presenters, who are thought to be at risk from the bacteria on their microphones, and musicians playing wind instruments, who must contend with gastric reflux as they puff and blow.
An alternate title for this post is "My Big Fat Greek Retirement."

2 comments:

Ric 'The Turtle' Ryan said...

Welcome to America 50 years down the road. If you know all that crap is bad for you, change professions. Let them fix their own hair. Go do something healthy like digging ditches.

Anonymous said...

I think you missed the point Ric The Turtle Ryan; the employees are not the subject of the conversation but the lack of money management on the part of the government is. The very idea that this country believes they can sustain this way of living is why they are in financial distress now. There is no possible way that an American government would offer pensions that pay the same amount as a working persons salary;Ditch diggers would receive large pension plans also, FYI...