Romania posts second lowest compensation for employees in EU

Romania keeps its second lowest position among the European Union member states in terms of compensation of employees, with EUR 5.5 on average per hour worked in 2017, up from EUR 4.9 in 2016, according to Eurostat data released on Thursday.

In the EU, the compensation of employee received by hour worked in 2017 was on average EUR 23.1, compared with EUR 22.8 in 2016 and EUR 19.5 ten years before, in 2007.

“The compensation of employees was below €10 per hour worked in Bulgaria (€5.1), Romania (€5.5), Poland (€6.3 in 2016), Hungary (€7.6), Lithuania (€8.4), Croatia (€8.5 in 2016) and Latvia (€8.6),” Eurostat said.

In Romania, the compensation of employees grew 57 percent during the last decade, from EUR 3.5 in 2007. But the largest relative increase of wages over this ten-year period was recorded in Bulgaria (from EUR 2.3 to EUR 5.1, or +122%), ahead of Estonia (+67 percent), Slovakia and Lithuania (both 62 percent).

The average compensation of employee received by hour worked is calculated by dividing national accounts data on compensation of employees for the total economy, which include wages and salaries as well as employers’ social contributions, by the total number of hours worked by all employees, according to Eurostat.

Across the EU member states, the compensation of employees was highest in Luxembourg (EUR 43.8 in 2016), followed by Denmark (EUR 38.7) and Belgium (EUR 37.9 in 2016) and was above EUR 30 in other three countries: France (EUR 33), the Netherlands (EUR 33.7 in 2016) and Germany (EUR 32.3).