THE BASIC MINIMUM GROSS SALARY IN 2019: INTRODUCTION OF THE DIFFERENTIAL MINIMUM GROSS SALARY

As of January 1st, 2019, in accordance with Government Decision no. 937/2018, published in Official Journal no.1045 as of December 10, 2018, the minimum gross salary at the national level in 2019 will increase from 1,900 Lei per month (approximately 413 Euros) , for a full-time job of 166.666 hours per month to.

• 2,080 Lei per month (approximately 452 Euros) for a full-time job, namely 12.43 Lei/hour
And
• 2,350 Lei per month (approximately 510 Euros), namely 14.044 Lei/hour for a full-time job for employees hired for positions requiring higher education, having a seniority of at least one year in the field.

In order to introduce the differential basic minimum gross salary, the Labor Code has just been amended by introducing the concept of “differential basic minimum gross salary”, which makes it possible to separate the employees according the positions they hold (requiring or not higher education) and according to seniority criteria.

The basic minimum gross salary at the national level is defined as the lowest basic salary that an employee may be granted under an individual employment agreement, for a full-time job. Establishing a basic salary inferior to the rate provided by the abovementioned Decision represents a violation of the law and shall be punished by a fine between 300 Lei and 2,000 Lei.

Consequently, gross salaries inferior to the legal threshold received by full-time employees must be increased to 2,080 Lei and respectively to 2,350 Lei as of January 1st, 2019. Given that this amendment is imposed by the law, in accordance with article 17 paragraph 5 of the Labour Code, concluding an addendum to the labour agreement is not compulsory.

The minimum gross salary at the national level was increased by 16% (from 1,250 Lei to 1,450) in 2017 and by 31.03% in 2018. This new increase by 23.68% of the basic minimum gross salary is in line with the salary increase already announced by authorities for some time.