Romania: The minimum wage will be differentiated based on the level of education required and seniority

Following a long discussion over the need to increase of the minimum wage guaranteed in payment the Government has announced on November 9th that an Emergency Ordinance was issued that will modify the Labour Code introducing a new notion of differentiated minimum wage. The criteria that could be used to establish the differentiated minimum wage is the level of education – higher minimum wage for positions that require the employees to be university graduates and seniority – higher minimum wage for employees that have more than 15 years of experience. The level for each differentiated category is to be set by Government Decision. At this time the Government is yet to set the level for the differentiated minimum wage. The current gross monthly minimum wage guaranteed in payment is 1.900 RON (aprox. 408 Euro) and the levels that the Government proposed are 2.080 RON (aprox. 446 Euro) for a normal employee and 2350 RON (aprox. 504 Euro) for positions that require the employees to be university graduates or for employees that have more than 15 years of seniority. The new levels for the differentiated monthly gross minimum wage are expected to be introduced on December 1st 2018.