Minimum wage will not increase from January 1, 2016

The Government is set to freeze, for the moment, the minimum wage at 1,050 lei (approximately 235 euro), even though the former cabinet promised to increase the wage to 1,200 lei (approximately 270 euro) from January 1, 2016."We will analyze the impact an increase in the minimum wage would have and, eventually, we will recommend increases that can take place. From January 1 it will not increase, because we cannot make this estimation on the economy and we would say for naught that we want to stimulate the economy with such a generous fiscal package that we made a great effort to include in the budget if we were to take a measure that could destroy the business environment. We cannot make this increase overnight, because this measure can significantly affect the competitiveness of Romania", said, on Friday, the Minister of Public Finance, Anca Dragu.

She mentioned that the analysis regarding the impact is underway, but that the measure must be analyzed especially in the private area, because the public sector yields no wages under the minimum wage, given the increases approved this year for various categories, such as workers in healthcare, education and local administration, but also the 10 percent increase for all public sector workers decided upon recently.

Furthermore, the Minister claims that such a measure can determine a migration of personnel from the fiscalized white area to the gray or black area of the economy.

The Ponta Government had scheduled in its governing programme the increase of the minimum wage to 1,200 lei from January 1, 2016, and the former PM had promised additional increases to 1,300 lei until the midpoint of 2016 and 1400 lei from January 1, 2017.

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