02 August 2007

The Pension

Some of you might think a pension is a rooms to let place or a small hotel, but here in Greece it is your retirement fund. Arthur is starting his today, his father went on Agriculture Pension about 4 months ago and just got his 2nd payment today in the mail. Now this is the fun part the mailman brought the pension in CASH, that's right this mailman is carrying around thousands of dollars and handing out pensions in cash, only state workers get their pension in check form. Katerina has owned Koka Roka for 20 years and her birthday was in July so this is why she has "retired" and now Arthur will run the business and start on his pension. You only pay into a pension for 20 years you do not get more money out of it if you stay in longer, so you work 20 years and then you hand over the business to someone else.
This is also the reason why you will find many businesses run by family members, because if you hire someone you have to pay their pension and this can get very expensive. If it's all in the family well then it's all under the table, so to speak. Now the pension is not only for retirement funds, but it is also for the health insurance and when Arthur starts his I am also under his pension and will receive the same benefits.
This is the Story of Greek Life for today.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well congratulations to Katerina upon retirement. I suspect it will be like mine, short lived. Twenty years will go by pretty quickly. DAD