Romania’s average wage maintains over EUR 650 in May despite slight decline

Romania’s wage growth rate slightly decelerated in May as earnings declined to EUR 651 mainly due to Easter bonuses paid by many companies during the previous month.

Romania’s average net monthly earnings rose by 14.7 percent year-on-year in May – compared with 14.8 in April – up to RON 3,101 (EUR 651), National Institute of Statistics (INS) data showed on Monday.

The highest wage increases were concentrated in the state sector.

The average net monthly earnings declined by 0.4 percent month-on-month, from RON 3,115 (EUR 656) – an all-time high – in April.

Real wages increased by 10.2 percent between May 2018 and May 2019, due to high inflation rate (4.1 percent in May, year-on-year).

Read more about

East European Coffee Culture Festival: brewing excitement this weekend

read more

The gross average monthly earnings declined to RON 5,078 (EUR 1,067) in May, from RON 5,105 (EUR 1,075) in April.

The highest net monthly earnings were recorded in May in the IT sector (RON 6,946, EUR 1,459), and the lowest in garment industry (RON 1,782, EUR 374).

Since the beginning of this year, the government has increased the minimum gross wage in Romania from RON 1,900 to RON 2,080 and introduced a separate minimum wage for workers in construction of RON 3,000.

Romania has the second lowest average wage among the European Union member states, after Bulgaria.

The total amount of wages paid by the Romanian employers rose last year by 17 percent compared with 2017, up to EUR 80.3 billion, an all-time high, mainly due to minimum wage and public sector wages’ increases.

In 2017, the amount of wages was EUR 68.5 billion, and this means that the total wage bill rose by almost EUR 12 billion last year, according to BR calculations based on Eurostat data.