Some bankers earn more than 50,000 Euros a month

The crisis hasn"t affected bankers" compensation, as the monthly salaries remained steady, and only the variable part suffered major changes.

Thus, according to head-hunter George Butunoiu, fixed salaries in the banking sector have remained unchanged, at around 20,000 Euros, for managers of larger banks, whereas the heads of smaller banks only earn 15,000 to 20,000 Euros a month, from salaries alone.

"On average, bank presidents have average net wages ranging between 20,000 and 25,000 Euros, but their total monthly earnings can go as high as 50,000 Euros", George Butunoiu, head of the eponymous consulting company said for BURSA. He said that bankers are interested in the variable part of their monthly earnings, which is performance-based.

Last year, financial services, media and telecom were the only sectors that were present in the chart of the highest wages in Romania, with manufacturing sectors not being featured in the chart.

Banks had the highest salaries last year, with seven of the first ten highest paid employees working in top management positions with lending institutions.

Bankers" salaries are a lot higher than those of the governor of the NBR, or those of its advisors, who receive around 7,000 Euros a month, according to the representatives of the central bank.

The procedure by which bankers would receive their annual bonuses one year later last year caused a major shift in the compensation chart, and in terms of bank payroll. Thus, with the crisis in full swing and with non-performing loans, some bank managers saw their annual compensation packages increase by 30 to 50%, whereas some of the larger banks saw their payroll costs increase by more than 20%.

• How much do the other employees make

In 2008, bank employees had an average gross salary of 995 Euros in 2008, making them the highest paid category of employees, followed by employees in the pharmaceutical industry, with a gross salary of 918 Euros and by IT&C employees, with 880 Euros. In 2010, things have changed.

According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in 2010, the largest wage increases were seen in the IT (5.9%) and pharmaceutical sector (5.4%), while in the retail and banking sector, wages increased by only 3%.

The gross average wage in the private sector currently is approximately 4,000 lei, for employees working in Bucharest, the average gross wage for employees of cities other than Bucharest receive 2,500 lei on average.