Minimum wage in Romania

The Labour Code (art. 164) stipulates that the government sets the minimum wage for full-time (8 hours per day) employment and that employers are not allowed to pay less.  Art. 164 of the Labour Code was significantly amended by Law 283/2024, which transposes the European Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages.

The Labour Code also stipulates that the minimum wage is set by Government decision. The periodic updating of the minimum wage is instituted by the adoption of a new Government decision, which comes into force each year on the 1st of January. The latest one is Decision nr. 1506/2024, which came into force on 1 January 2025.

Art. 164 of the Labour code and Law 283/2024 stipulate that the Government sets the minimum wage through a procedure that includes several criteria (see below) and it includes an approximate reference level in relation to average wages. The Government Decision 35/2025 stipulates that the minimum wage is increased at a percentage rate equal to the sum of inflation and real growth of labour productivity for the next year, as forecasted by the National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis.

Theoretically, according to Law 174/2020, a living wage is a priority target for the minimum wage policy. Law 174/2020 provides a method for estimating the living wage at a national level and stipulates that the minimum wage should be set while considering this estimate. It also stipulates that the National Institute of Statistics should calculate and officially publish the living wage estimate periodically. Even though Law 174/2020 was passed via normal parliamentary procedure with support from the Social Democratic Party that is now in power and has been in force since 2020, it has not had any effect on the country’s minimum wage policy. The National Institute of Statistics has declined to publish the living wage estimate, claiming technical errors in the text of the law prevent it from doing so. In the absence of official figures, government officials have ignored the provisions of Law 174/2020. As such, only a part of the trade union movement still insists on making Law 174/2020 functional.

• Labour Code (art. 164)

• Law 283/2024

• Decision nr. 1506/2024

• Law 174/2020

• Decision 35/2025

The minimum wage is set by the government, after consulting with nationally representative employer and trade union confederations within the National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue. This practice abides by art. 164 of the Labour Code. The organisations are the following:

Trade unions

• Cartel Alfa National Trade Union Confederation (Confederația Națională Sindicală Cartel Alfa, CNS Cartel Alfa)

• The National Trade Union Bloc (Blocul Național Sindical, BNS)

• The National Free Trade Union Confederation from Romania – Frăția (Confederația Națională a Sindicatelor Libere din România, CNSLR Frăția)

• The Democratic Romanian Trade Union Confederation (Confederația Sindicatelor Democratice din România, CSDR)

• The Meridian National Trade Union Confederation (Confederația Sindicală Națională Meridian, CSN Meridian)

Employers

• The Concordia Employer’s Confederation (Confederația Patronală Concordia, CP Concordia)

• The National Council for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (Consiliul Național al Întreprinderilor Private Mici și Mijlocii din România, CNIPMMR)

The Labour Code stipulates only that the government must consult with employers’ organizations and trade unions before setting the minimum wage. According to the Social Dialogue Law (Law 367/2022 replacing Law 62/2011), consultations take place within the framework of the National Tripartite Council. The agenda for the Council meetings is set by the government, which means that there is no official fixed rule when it comes to updating the minimum wage — for example, there is no regulated calendar. In practice, up until 2025, the minimum wage was updated at least annually, either towards the end or at the beginning of the year. There were rare exceptions to this rule ꟷ for example, 2020. Starting with January 2025, the minimum wage is legally supposed to be set once per year, at the beginning of January.

• Law 367/2022 replacing Law 62/2011

There are no explicit mandatory criteria in setting the minimum wage.

Law 283/2024, which amends the Labour Code and transposes the European Directive of Adequate Minimum wages, stipulates that the Government sets the minimum wage through a procedure that includes several criteria:

• The purchasing power of the minimum wage and the cost of living

• The general level of wages and the wage distribution

• Overall wage growth

• The level and evolution of labour productivity at the national level in the long term.

The law is unclear as to how these aspects are measured and how they are factored into the government decision setting the minimum wage. The law also mentions that assessments will be conducted for the social and economic impact of the minimum wage policy and that these will be taken into consideration when setting the minimum wage. According to Law 283/2024, the minimum wage setting should be based on the analyses of a “research institute specializing in the analysis and impact assessment of labour market policies”; this research institute should conduct the impact assessment and, it is understood, provide analyses of the criteria for minimum wage setting. The law also stipulates that the statutory minimum wage is set according to an “approximate” (orientativ in Romanian) reference level of “47%-52% of the average wage”.

Government Decision 35/2025 mentions two criteria: forecasted inflation and real labour productivity growth forecast. Each year, the minimum wage is increased by the percentage sum of these two indicators. If the resulting minimum wage is lower than 52% of the average wage, the Decision stipulates that social partners can negotiate a supplementary increase in the National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue.

The minimum wage is universally binding, according to art. 164 of the Labour Code. All employees are covered.

There is no legal possibility for a full-time employee to earn less than the minimum wage. The only possibility for an employee to earn less than the minimum wage is by working part-time. For part-time employees the minimum wage is calculated by multiplying the number of hours worked per month by the hourly minimum rate stipulated in the latest government decision.

In response to the significant increase in the number of employees earning the minimum wage, the government introduced an amendment to the Labour Code (art. 164) stipulating that an employee can be paid the minimum wage only for the first 24 months of an individual labour contract. This policy applies starting with 1 January 2022 and its effects have not been assessed yet.

Higher minimum wages are legally stipulated for the agriculture, construction, and the food industry. The higher minimum wage for construction was introduced in January 2019 (Government Emergency Ordinance 114/2018, art. 71), while for agriculture and the food industry it has been in place since June 2022 (Law 135/2022, art. III). Technically speaking, these are dealt separately from the statutory minimum wage. Following the most recent increase of the statutory minimum wage (RON 3,300 from 1 October 2023), the government increased the minimum wage for the construction sector to RON 4,582 and for agriculture and the food industry to RON 3,436 (Government Emergency Ordinance 93/2023) starting with 1 November 2023. This was justified by the claimed need to continue to support activity in these sectors and to avoid potentially negative consequences for the national economy. Higher minimum wages in these sectors are supported by tax exemptions (more precisely, social contributions exemptions). Romanian authorities have committed to eliminate such exemptions by 2028 — this is targeted in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The minimum wage for construction and for agriculture and the food industry has not been increased as of December 2025.

• Law 135/2022

• Government Emergency Ordinance 93/2023

• Government Emergency Ordinance 114/2018, art. 71

The government decisions setting the minimum wage usually define it as both monthly and hourly rates, also specifying the ‘normal’ number of hours worked per month — for 2025, for example, it is 165.334 hours per month; this varies from year to year depending on the number of legal working days. For full-time workers the monthly rate is normally employed, and the hourly rate is mostly employed to aid calculations for part-time employees. Minimum wage earners receive 12 payments per year, one corresponding to each month of the year.

The minimum wage is legally defined as the base wage (Labour Code arts. 164 and 165), so it cannot include any bonuses or other elements. There are also no possibilities of deductions, which are explicitly forbidden by the Labour Code (arts. 164 and 165). The complete legal name for the minimum wage in Romania is ‘the country-wide base gross minimum wage guaranteed to be paid’ (salariul de bază minim brut pe țară garantat în plată).

According to art. 165 of the Labour Code, for employees whose employer, according to the collective or individual employment contract, provides them with food, accommodation or other facilities, the amount in money due for the work performed cannot be lower than the minimum salary gross per country provided by law.

There are no regular reports on the minimum wage in Romania. Occasional research is likewise scarce.

• Blocul Național Sindical (2024), Transpunerea în România a Directivei 2041/2022 privind salariile minime adecvate, Bucharest.

• Confederația Patronală Concordia (2024), Politica salariului minim în România, Bucharest.

• Guga, S. (2021), Salariul minim și traiul minim decent, Bucharest.

• Confederația Patronală Concordia and Consilium Policy Advisers Group (2020), Considerații asupra politicii salariului minim în România, Bucharest.

• Frank Heemskerk, Liviu Voinea and Alexandra Cojocaru (2018), Busting the myth: the impact of increasing the minimum wage: the experience of Romania, Washington.

• Cristian Socol and Marius Marinas (2017), Salariul minim ca instrument de politici publice – pro sau contra?, Bucharest