IT professionals remain the best paid employees in Romania, followed by those in Judiciary, Banking and Human Resources sectors

The top paid professionals in Romania in 2018 are those in IT with an average net monthly income of RON 5,731 at the national level, according to the annual HR Review & Trends report by eJobs. The area with highest net average wage remains Bucharest-Ilfov, with RON 2,989, followed surprisingly by the West region, or North-West, with RON 2,745.

IT professionals, lawyers, bankers and human resources specialists had, in 2018, the highest average wages in Romania based on the figures from Paylab.ro, the first payroll comparator in the local market. The report shows that the top salary was dominated IT professionals, a field where the net average wage at national level was RON 5,731, per month, followed by the Judiciary field, with a monthly income of RON 4,571, Banking (RON 4,226) and Human Resources (RON 4,048).

These are, in fact, the only areas where the net average wage exceeds the RON 4,000 threshold. Under this level, but not at a very large distance, are employees in Finance and Accounting (RON 3,930), Quality Control (RON 3,646), Insurance (RON 3,565), Constructions and Real Estate (RON 3,234), Public Administration (RON 3,197) and Mechanical Engineering (RON 3,077).

At the opposite end of the ranking, the lowest net average wages were registered in the Textile industry (RON 1,987), Wood Processing industry (RON 2,239), in Services (RON 2,281) and in Guard and Protection services (RON 2,335).

The top wages by gender remain unchanged but things change when doing gender segmentation in terms of the lowest wages. Thus, the industries in which women have the lowest wages are Textiles (RON 1,877), Wood Processing (RON 2,027), Services (RON 2,182), Guard and Protection (RON 2,262) and Agriculture (RON 2,301).

“Two of the areas in this ranking, namely Guard and Protection and Woodworking, are known to be mainly dominated by men. That’s why their presence here highlights a small number of women working in the field rather than a gender pay gap,” says Bogdan Badea, eJobs Romania CEO.

For men, similar to the fields where women earn the least are Textiles (RON 2.098), Services (RON 2.380), Guard and Protection (RON 2.409) and Woodworking (RON 2.450) ). The hierarchy is completed by the Chemical industry (RON 2,476).

Geographical distribution

The geographical distribution of net average wages shows that the Bucharest-Ilfov area holds the first place among the highest wage regions, the average being of RON 2,989 lei. More interesting is that the second place is occupied by the West of Romania, and not the Northwest, a region renowned for socio-economic growth in recent years. Thus, Western employees have a net average salary of RON 2,745, the Northwest of RON 2,729, the Center RON 2,666, and the South-Eastern of RON 2,618. The average in the South (Muntenia) region is RON 2,580, in the North-East RON 2,548, and in South-West Oltenia RON 2,535.

“2019 began extremely dynamically, as did 2018, with nearly 9 million applications for jobs across the country, abroad and at all levels of experience. And 2019 wants to overtake this record. This is the third year of launching Review & Trends, and in each of these years the figures have shown us that HR is anything but boring. We expect an equally dynamic pace of employment, as in 2018, to one-off wage increases, but not in all areas, and a change in approach, both in terms of candidates and employers,” added Badea.