I spent enough time at the ‘Meeting Pub’ for meals and a few drinks that I got to know most of the employees. One in particular was super excited to find out I was American. Most English first language speakers who would dine there would generally be Irish or from the U.K. But this young man Dimitris (he liked being called Jimmy) always wanted to visit or move to the United States. He told me he and many other Greeks like him still saw it as the land of opportunity that wasn’t available to him in home of Athens. We began talking about basketball and then various other subjects (Giannis Antetokounmpo is a living demi-god among Greek basketball fans.) I told him of my friend whose father was Greek and moved to the U.S. at 18 years old to eventually open his own restaurant that he still runs in his 70’s. Pegasus Taverna in Detroit if you are curious. This was the sort of thing Jimmy longed for, entrepreneurship and being self-made, taking care of your family though your own blood and sweat. He explained to me how ones family, especially the mother, was held in such high regard culturally in both Greece and Cyprus. Everything you do, you must ask yourself, “Would this make my mother upset? Will she cry?” I had the chance to walk with him later that night as he had a 40 minute conversation with his mother on the phone, and she was living up to every trope you will hear about Greek mothers who worry about their children.

Jimmy invited me down to MacKenzie beach, which is about 3km south of the main beach of Larnaca that the students of the excavations here will come to know very well. I sat down with Jimmy over drinks at a tiki-style tavern right on the beach called ‘Rebuke Lounge’. There I had the chance to pick his brain about working in the service industry in Larnaca as well as the reasons why he left Athens to work here. We spent a few hours talking about many things all revolving around this topic, but I will try to condense them into specific points.

In Cyprus, the minimum monthly wage is 700 Euros. Compared to Athens at 400 Euros, that is a lot of money. But at his job he made 1365 Euros a month, plus another 300 from tips that were pulled together and distributed amongst employees (know that tipping in most of Europe is uncommon, not expected, and is generally reserved for when you are really happy with the service). With local taxes taken out he is left with 1200 Euros and the additional 300 Euros that he called, “on the black” which means it was never recorded for tax purposes by the business so employees got more. Cyprus (along with Greece) has a pretty normalized ‘black market’ of jobs, accommodations, and other things that keeps money from going into the government coffers and keeps more in the pockets of the average worker. The nature of having cash centric services tend to lend to this. That is why everyone you go you always get a receipt for a transaction with cash. If you didn’t, someone might not be exactly on the level.

So Jimmy takes home about 1500 Euros a month. He tells me that 1500 Euros a month in Athens is really big money for a job. He felt you were effectively rich if you brought home more than 2000 a month. In Cyprus, it just means you are doing fine. He told me housing, like an apartment for one or two people in Athens, if you stay away from the city center, would cost maybe just 250-300 Euros a month, but energy bills could be a couple hundred every two months. One can see how quickly 400 Euros would disappear if almost all over it went to housing and electricity. He could not give me figures on housing costs in Larnaca, but he did imply they were likely more than Athens but compared to the wages people usually received, a person would be comfortable working in Laranca. In Athens, the best jobs are “public domain” jobs, basically anything working for the government. He said people fight hard to get those jobs and never leave them, as the money and pension is enough to never really worry about anything financially. He made just as much serving tables in Larnaca than a person with a degree working in a government office did. Part of his wages he sent home to his mother just so she never had to struggle on just one income. Jimmy’s father is English living somewhere back there, but tends to bounce around from the United States and various European countries. In talking with Jimmy, I never got much of a hint that he saw his father very often. More so when he was younger, but maybe not for the past few years.

So everything seems pretty rosy with Jimmy’s life, right? Well, hold the phone. The reason Jimmy was not able to tell me the cost of housing in Larnaca, despite living here, is that his housing is provided by his employer. The owner also owns a building near the St. Lazarus Church. Jimmy lives in a normal two bedroom flat with another employee and only pays 50 Euros a month for covering energy, water, and building maintenance. This seems like a hell of a deal, especially for someone who is only working seasonally between university and taking time away from school just to travel. But know this… if Jimmy loses his job, Jimmy loses his housing. I do not know how common of an arrangement this is in Cyprus, perhaps it is unique. But it would make me weary, personally, to know an employer holds that much control over my life. But it seems based on the wages and how many of the employees of the ‘Meeting Pub’ have worked for the same employer for several years, he is a decent and fair man to be employed under.

The last thing about both Greek and Cypriot jobs, is that the work week is six 8 hour days. Your normal work week is 48 hours, not including unpaid lunches during your shift. More than one day off a week is reserved for vacation time (which is usually one whole month off) or special holidays. There does not seem to be an overtime in Cyprus like we imagine, where any hours beyond a certain number pay out at a 1.5x rate. Instead, if Jimmy has to come in and work on his day off, he is paid a full 8 hour day, even if he works only 3 hours. I would assume if we worked a full eight hours, it would just be at the normal rate. All this being said, Jimmy makes about 6.25 Euros an hour in wages after taxes, but not including the under the table tips.

I hope this lengthy post really paints a picture for you of the potential standards of living you can encounter in Cyprus. These people work longer weeks than we are accustomed to for much less. But no one place is the same and no people’s experiences are monolithic. Make friends and learn about their lives. One of the reasons you can see many Brits retiring out to Cyprus or Athens is because their pensions or retirement funds can be stretched a long ways leading to a comfortable life in a paradise. When a lot of Greeks are young, they dream of coming to England or the U.S., while the old Brits and Americans dream of retiring where the young want to flee. Strange irony that is.

-Adam E.