I see many posts about what's going on in the US atm and I feel like I have to share what's like living in Greece. English is my second language so I apologise for any mistakes.
So first of all, minimum wage in Greece is 713 euros per month. After taxes, this is like 3.50 euros per hour. We have some of the highest taxing in Europe, even people with smaller incomes have to pay big taxes. On the plus side, we get payed 14 wages per year instead of 12(one bonus for Christmas and one bonus for Easter). Our biggest industry is tourism so we have many people working in that industry and the pay there is really bad, usually minimum wage. Tipping exists here so that makes things slightly better. People with a degree with a strong market value(CS, Engineering, Accounting, business management) can usually get a starting salary of 900-1300 euros per month, depending on skills and university. The rest aren't so lucky. As you can imagine, tax evasion is rampant here, many people work unregistered because of the extra 200-300 euros they and their employer can earn by not paying tax, insurance and pension contributions(we have a public pension plan as well as public health insurance).
So you may be thinking that with such low salaries, Greece would be a cheap country. How nice would that be. Our groceries are slightly more expensive than the average European country(where people have twice or thrice our salaries), slightly less that a low col US state I estimate. Electricity is through the roof lately, higher than the average EU country. Our telecommunications(phone/internet) are among the most expensive in Europe and the service is average at best, abyssmal at worst. The biggest joke of them all though is gas. We generally have among the highest gas prices in the world, usually 2.5-3 times higher than the US. Tax in gas is 200%, for every euro you give for gas, you give 2 more to the state. Currently, in most areas gas prices are 2.2-2.5 euros per litre. That's like 8.5-10 euros per galon. Public transportation isn't very expensive but most of the time it's horrible. Car taxes(both for maintenance and usage) and tolls are also pretty high.
At least rent is cheap though right? Nope. It might be considered cheap when comparing absolute values but it is unsustainable for most. A simple 35 square meter house in a decent area in Athens/Attica would cost 300-450 euros per month, depending on whether the house is renovated, the age of the appartment building etc. Add administration costs as well which range from 20-100 euros(many factors determine the costs). The result is most people keep living with their parents until their late twenties/early thirties and also now have their first child in their late thirties/early forties, if they have any, and rarely do they have more than one.
Regarding the work environment, besides salaries, the situation is bad. Many employers request overtime, usually unpaid or underpayed. Some employers just take advantage of the employees, especially the ones that work summer jobs in tourst areas, who may even end up working more than 80 hours per week and get payed for 40. We have many job openings for seasonal staff in tourism(around 55000) which aren't filled because of the horrible working conditions. Nepotism is also rampant. In Greece it doesn't matter how good you are, only who you know. If you have the right connections, you can end up getting payed to do nothing in a public service, you can get promotions, you can get raises etc. If you don't have connections, you either have to have amazing skills or to do something with a lot of demand in order to get a livable wage and a decent job.
All this has driven most young, talented people to leave the country and immigrate to other countries in the EU where they know their skills will be more respected and their work will be rewarded fairly. Combined with the fact that people don't have kids anymore and the result is the workforce diminishing by the day. Our politicians are corrupt who only ever want to line up their own pockets and don't give a damn about the people. The current situation benefits the rich and the elite which are fimly connected with the politicians(most are rich anyway) so the situation isn't going to improve.
I see Greece as a sinking ship with the only sane thing to do is to abandon it and take your skills somewhere else where you will actually be valued and be allowed to live like a human, not a slave. At least immigration in the EU is easy so I guess our citizenship is our silver lining.