Romania’s net average wage remained roughly flat in July compared to June and edged up by 5.1% compared to July 2020, according to the statistics office INS.

In real terms, corrected for inflation (4.95% YoY in July), the net wage thus edged up a small 0.2% yoy - the smallest annual advance since 2013.

In absolute terms, the Romanian employees received an average net wage of RON 3,545 (EUR 721). The winners of the past 12 months in terms of incomes are the employees in the sectors of IT, banking, utilities, air transportation and oil& mining.

Their wages are well above average (ranging from +46%/mining to +145%/IT), and they have increased by between 7.1% YoY (mining) and 14.1% YoY (air transportation).

Only for the employees in the air transportation industry, the advance of the past twelve months was partly caused by the (-4.1% YoY) decrease during the lockdown period last year.

The wages in the sectors of IT, banking, utilities and oil&mining were thus not touched by the crisis last year, and they enjoy a healthy outlook as well.

In contrast, the employees in the sector of education and (surprisingly) pharmaceutical industry are worse-off post-crisis.

Their wages, below average, have contracted by 10.6% YoY and 6.0% yoy respectively and are now 3.9% below average respectively 5.7% above average.

In the sector of education, however, this means an improvement compared to previous years. Over the past 12 months ending July 2020, the wages in education had surged by 19% YoY. 

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andrei@romania-insider.com