Romania’s 2008 Minimum Wage Set At RON500

At the end of the meeting with the representatives of both unions and owners’ associations, Pacuraru said that the minimum salary will go up in 2008 by 28%, from RON390 to RON500, stressing that this increase will have no impact on inflation. However, the minister cared to point out that RON500 is the highest level for the minimum salary the budget can afford.

 

Pacuraru pointed out that this increase makes it possible for the minimum salary to reach the equivalent of nearly EUR150, which "gets us closer to former communist countries that have joined the European Union, where the minimum salary nears EUR170."

 

Pacuraru said that the unions asked for a new round of negotiations in 2008 on the minimum salary if the economic growth allows it.

 

According to Pacuraru, although that the representatives of both unions and owners’ associations agreed on the minimum salary proposed by the government, Octavian Bojan, representative of the "Concordia" Owners’ Confederation said, at the end of the meeting, that certain principles were breached during the negotiations.