Turcan: Minimum salary could be increased 8-12% before year-end

The Government is considering raising the minimum salary earlier this year, given price increases, and the proposed increases are between 8% and 12%, Labor Minister Raluca Turcan said on Tuesday in Ploiesti, agerpres reports.

"At the moment we are in the negotiation stage between employers and unions, and the Government has its own projection on the capacity to support the increase in the minimum wage. Naturally, the increase in the minimum wage is made from the beginning of the year. But if price rises is negative, we are considering a faster increase," she said.

The Minister of Labor could not specify when or how much, given that the tripartite negotiations are still ongoing.

"I would like you to know that requests for increases between 8 and 12% have been made so far. I am interested, as Minister of Labor, in the increase to be consistent and felt," Raluca Turcan also said in a conference of press.

Prime Minister Florin Citu mentioned, at the end of last week, that he is considering increasing the minimum gross salary by 8%, and this increase could be achieved from November 1 or December 1, 2021.

According to the executive director of the Concordia Employers' Confederation, Radu Burnete, the Government should increase the minimum wage from January next year, and not before, because international and Romanian companies have nailed salary budgets and cannot make fund reallocations as they wish.

He said that an 8% increase in the minimum salary is reasonable, given that inflation is to approach 5% by the end of the year.

On the other hand, the president of the National Trade Union Confederation (CNS) ALFA Cartel, Bogdan Hossu, says that the Government's proposal to increase the minimum salary by 8% for next year would represent a real 1% increase in the minimum wage, because inflation at the end of the year current will probably be over 7%. The leader of the National Trade Union Bloc, Dumitru Costin, also claimed that the proposal of the Head of Government would have an insignificant impact on the net income of an employee paid with the minimum wage, compared to the increase in energy prices borne by employees.