The social partners have not reached an agreement on the minimum salary for next year

The negotiations regarding the increase of the minimum wage between the representatives of the Government and those of the trade unions and employers did not materialize with an agreement, because the employers claim that they cannot raise the minimum wage to 3700 lei from July 1, 2024, but from January 1, 2025, while which union leaders requested a salary increase to the amount of 3800 lei per month from March 1, 2024.

At the end of yesterday's meeting of the Tripartite National Council, Florin Jianu, the president of the National Council of Small and Medium Private Enterprises in Romania (CNIPMMR) said: "The proposals we made in agreement with employers, both the National Council of IMM- uri, as well as Concordia, were for this increase in the minimum wage for the economy to be done in two stages, 3,500 lei from July 1, 2024 and 3,700 lei from January 1, 2025. The unions came up with a proposal for an increase of 3,800 lei, and the Government came up with a proposal of 3,700 lei, so from 3,300 lei to 3,700 lei from July 1, 2024. For the agro-food industry to remain a common level of the minimum wage per economy of 3,700 lei and not to pay the minimum wage per economy for construction, because they have a differentiated wage of 4,500 lei. So these were the proposals on the table. We will see what the Government's decision is, the decision is the Government's, not ours".

The representative of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs specified that employers requested that the tax exemption applied for the amount of 200 lei for those with the minimum wage remain in force, both for the six months until the next increase in the minimum wage in the economy, and to be included in the next increase.

Florin Jianu also said: "They are under analysis, we had this discussion today because the state budget is being built and then a decision must be made. He will make a decision in the coming days. The budget, I understood that today it is put into decision-making transparency, we asked for a few things, to be a consistent allocation for the business environment, I understood that it is a 12% increase in the budget, regarding SMEs. We did not receive a very clear answer, but we believe and hope and we will pay attention to the construction of the budget, that there will be amounts for startups, for SMEs, for the level of guarantees for next year, because if we discuss fees and taxes and we don't discuss the reconstruction and support of the business environment, I don't think we are in a good trend".

For his part, Marius Sepi, the representative of the Forţa Legii National Trade Union, a trade union that is part of the Meridian Confederation, said that in addition to the proposal to increase the minimum wage to 3,800 lei from July 1, he also came up with the proposal to reduce the 5% of payroll tax.

Marius Sepi stated: "As a representative of the Meridian Confederation, I asked for something extra, 3,800 lei in March and a 5 percent reduction in taxation on everything that means salary. This means a net 300 lei, in today's money, for employees in Romania who work on the economy's minimum. Of course, the Government will decide what the agreed form will be. We do not accept the offer from employers with 3,500 and 3,700 lei, because the standard of living, as you all know, has dropped a lot in Romania".

Dumitru Costin, president of the National Trade Union Bloc, said: "This proposal to increase the minimum wage is mainly addressed to workers in the private economic environment, in the area of SMEs, because in the public sector there are very few wage earners paid on the minimum income. (...) At the moment we are talking about 1.8 million employees on the minimum income. I no longer say that I see the decision to postpone the increase of the minimum wage from July 1 as a strictly electoral matter. With regard to the proposed value, in our opinion, it should necessarily be corrected with some changes to the Fiscal Code. It is not possible to remain at the top of Europe, unfortunately, in terms of excessive taxation of the minimum wage! After the minimum wage is one of the lowest in Europe, we also have the highest taxed one!".

He showed that it is necessary to create a mechanism that establishes correct, principled bases regarding the increase of the minimum wage, income that should be increased based on this mechanism and not through political decisions.