Wages in Romanian public sector to grow by 25 pct from January 2018, says minister

The minister of labor, Lia Olguta Vasilescu, claims that all wages in the public sector will be hiked by 25 percent starting January 2018, according to the latest version of the public sector draft bill.

Vasilescu said this move was approved by officials at the Ministry of Finance.

Aside from the general hike of wages by 25 percent, there will be another 20 percent increase for employees in the education sector starting March 2018, while for doctors and nurses the wages will grow by 100 percent in the same period.

“Practically this is the version that will be submitted to the committee,” said Vasilescu, on the draft bill that has to be debated and voted in Parliament, before it is sent to president Klaus Iohannis to be signed into law.

Vasilescu added that the public sector wage budget will reach RON 75 billion in 2018, versus RON 68 billion this year.

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The minister said that the draft bill will reach the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday for a final vote.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, had warned that Romania’s new public sector draft bill could see the country miss its 3 percent budget deficit target due to excessive spending coupled with the reduction of taxes.

The minister of finance, Viorel Stefan, said the new public sector wage bill will have an impact of 8.6 percent of GDP.