How Much Was a Loaf of Bread? How hard was it to obtain a pair of shoes? What did a “day’s wage” mean a hundred years ago, and what was its real value in the daily struggle for survival?
This thematic exhibition embarks on a journey through the world of wage and of labor, from the beginnings of industrialization in Greece to the 1970s—an era when work was measured in sweat, and every good bore the imprint of an entire life. We focus especially on the working-class strata, most of whom were paid by the day, in contrast to salaried employees who were paid monthly.
Through a wide array of artifacts—banknotes, price lists, announcements, payrolls, newspapers, weighing tools, personal belongings, and photographs—the exhibition seeks to reconstruct the materiality of life and the economy of necessity, as well as the gendered dimensions of wage labor.
19th Century
Industrialization in Greece began in the 1870s, when within a few years about 100 steam-powered factories were established. From the mid-century, women had already entered the workforce—one notable case being Loukas Rallis’s silk mill in Piraeus, where female workers earned half of what men made.
In the 1870 census, female workers were recorded for the first time: out of 1,437,026 inhabitants, 22,665 were male workers and 5,735 were female, from a total of 556,507 individuals declaring a profession.
In 1870, the average daily wage was about 2.5 drachmas for men, 1.5 for women, and 0.5 for children. The weight unit used was the "oka" (1,282 grams or 2lb 13oz), replaced by the kilogram in 1960. Bread cost between 55 and 65 lepta, and beef between 1.20 and 2.60 drachmas per oka. For context, the construction cost of each kilometer of railway under Charilaos Trikoupis was 158,730 drachmas.
At the end of the 19th century, daily wages ranged from 1 to 4 drachmas, with laborers at the lower end. Thousands of women and girls entered industrial labor in spinning mills under grueling conditions. The newspaper Akropolis descibes the figure of the young female worker in Piraeus as:
"Hunched, poorly dressed, in rags, with patched clothes and worn-out shoes from long walks..."
Similar testimonies come from Syros, where women in textile factories worked 12-hour shifts, six days a week, and two unpaid hours every Sunday. In 1892, the first women workers' strike occurred at the Retsinas brothers' textile factory.
Markos Vamvakaris recalls working in a spinning mill as a child with his mother, describing how underage girls had to stand on stools to reach the machines. Children as young as six were considered old enough to work.
Early 20th Century
In the early 1900s, women’s wages were as low as 10 lepta, men’s ranged from 1.20 to 3 drachmas, and general workers earned 50 lepta to 1 drachma for 10–12 hours of work per day.
An oka of bread cost 30–40 lepta. Beans and chickpeas cost 40 lepta; lentils 50–60 lepta. Eggs were sold three for 10 p. Goat meat was 80 p to 1 drachma, lamb 1 to 1.40 drachmas. Olive oil and cheese were 1.20 drachmas. Fruits like oranges and lemons were three for a dekara, and watermelons or melons were 25 pence per oka.
In 1909, Law 3455 established Sunday as a day of rest. In 1911, legislation on workers’ health, safety, and working hours was passed. Within a decade, the workday was reduced from nearly 11 to 9 hours.
Despite gains by the labor movement through unions and associations, the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe upended everything, with waves of refugees flooding the cities in search of work. As labor advocate Pantelis Pouliopoulos wrote:
“Large textile, carpet, chemical, dye, and machine factories in Athens, Faliro, Piraeus, Thessaloniki, Volos, Naousa, and Kavala are crammed with refugee children and youth who are brutally exploited for over 10 hours of work and less than 10 drachmas a day. They suffocate in dust, are maimed by unguarded blades and machine wheels, terrorized by merciless overseers, secret factory police, fines, and arbitrary dismissals.”
Interwar Period
In interwar Greece—a time of social upheaval, refugee influx, industrial consolidation, and urbanization—a wage was not merely an economic unit, but a unit of life. Often, it barely covered the basics. Owning a coat or wristwatch could signify wealth or social mobility.
According to a study by the International Labour Office on working conditions in the interwar period, wage levels in Greece were the lowest in all of Europe.
The daily wage ranged from 50 drachmas for male workers to 27 for female workers—down from pre-war rates of 70 and 40 drachmas respectively, in factories such as tobacco-processing plants. Child laborers on construction sites—boys tasked with carrying lime or doing light work—were paid between 18 and 20 drachmas a day.
Prices of essential goods rose sharply during this decade. An oka of olive oil cost between 30 and 40 drachmas; lentils and beans 14 to 16; flour 8 drachmas. Imported goods such as sugar and coffee were even more expensive, at 24 and 80 drachmas respectively. Kerosene for lighting cost 20 drachmas, and soap 24. Bread rose from 0.53 drachmas in 1914 to 6.41 in 1930; milk from 0.50 to 9.80; fish from 2.20 to 30 drachmas per oka; and pasta from 0.80 to nearly 13 drachmas.
In effect, the cost-of-living index tripled, while wages covered only about 33% of a worker’s family needs. Strikes erupted nationwide demanding better pay. In Lavrion, miners lived in appalling conditions, earning just 35–40 drachmas a day when an oka of bread cost around 8.50 drachmas. Tuberculosis became a national scourge, claiming thousands of lives, many of whom had no access to medical care.
After a wave of strikes—some deadly—with major uprisings in Lavrion and Elefsina in 1929, wages were raised to 60 drachmas for skilled workers, 45 drachmas for general laborers, and 25 for women. This period also marked the beginning of social protection policies. The Workers' Housing Organization was founded in 1931. The eight-hour workday was legislated in 1932, and the Social Insurance Act passed in 1934. From 1935 onwards, the 8-hour workday and Collective Labor Agreements were formally implemented.
WWII and German Occupation Years (1941–1944)
The Axis occupation brought spiraling inflation, severe shortages, and widespread famine. Payment for goods was made using currency issued by the Occupation Authorities, printed in mobile presses operated by the German army.
In Athens, most food items were available only at exorbitant prices on the black market. For example, the price of potatoes soared from 15 drachmas per oka to ten times that amount. Citizens received ration coupons allowing them just 50 dramia (160 grams) of bread per day, and 50 dramia of milk only for children.
The 1960s and 1970s
Receipts from 1959 show that olive oil was priced at 24 drachmas per oka, about 18 drachmas per kilo. A coffee at the local kafeneion cost between half a drachma and one drachma early in the decade, rising later to 2–2.5 drachmas.
During this period, the unskilled laborer earned about 50 drachmas a day. This was raised by ministerial decree in 1965 to 65 drachmas for men and 50 for women. Monthly salaries for clerical workers started at 850 drachmas, reaching up to 1,600 for men and 1,300 for women. Civil engineers—highly sought-after husbands at the time—could earn as much as 8,000 drachmas per month.
By 1976, a standard construction day wage was 600 drachmas, and skilled craftsmen earned around 1,000. A newspaper cost 5 drachmas, meat 120 per kilo, oil 70, and a souvlaki just 10.
Reflections on Wages and Worth
Reflecting on the “day’s wage” over the first 150 years of the modern Greek state, we begin to see our present society in a different light. In a world where money flows digitally and goods are recycled with dizzying speed, the memory of manual labor, of the intrinsic value of toil, and the symbolic weight of objects acts as a vital mirror. A mirror that not only reveals the past—but confronts us with the enduring question: What is truly worth something?
It is telling, too, that most historical keepsakes—menus from grand restaurants, letters penned by or addressed to notable politicians—tend to illuminate the lives of the affluent. The daily toil, hunger, and endurance of working-class families were rarely recorded, and even more rarely preserved. Only in recent years have digitized archives begun to seek out and safeguard the fragments of laboring lives—pay slips, protest leaflets, ration cards—restoring dignity and narrative presence to those long relegated to history’s margins.
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The exhibition contains items from the following institutions:
