Romania’s finance minister Eugen Teodorovici said on Friday, August 3, that the minimum wage shouldn’t be mandatory in the private sector, where it should only be used as a benchmark.

“I think that the minimum wage shouldn’t be imposed in the economy. It can be imposed in the public administration and only be used as a benchmark in the private sector (…) and let the companies make their own decisions based on internal calculations,” Teodorovici said in an interview with DCnews.ro.

He added that he’s an advocate for a minimum state intervention in the market.

However, labor minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu doesn’t share the finance minister’s view on the minimum wage. She said in a talk show on Sunday evening that the minimum wage won’t be removed and that there is no such measure in the Social Democratic Party’s governing program, local Hotnews.ro reported.

She added that the finance minister’s opinion was a personal one, not one that was shared by the government.

Almost half of employees in Romania earn the minimum wage

editor@romania-insider.com