The average net wage in Romania increased by 3.8% y/y to RON 5,557 (EUR 1,091, +1.5% y/y) in February, but the 9.3% y/y inflation turned the positive nominal advance into a deep 5.0% y/y real contraction according to data published by the statistics office INS.
The net wages in Romania posted negative real annual growth rates around this value (-4.5%-5%) for the past seven months, since July-August 2025, when the electricity prices and the VAT rate hike pushed up the inflation by some 4 percentage points, close to 10%.
Besides the high inflation, the wages in the budgetary sector have remained fixed since the end of 2024 and have significantly contributed to the negative correction in the households’ wage income. However, the private sector also toned down the wage hikes amid an uncertain economic outlook and rising fiscal policy.
In real terms, the net wages in Romania during the first two months of 2026 are still above those seen in 2023 (except for November and December when year-end bonuses are disbursed), before the unsustainable wage hikes in the budgetary sector during the electoral year 2024, matched by similar moves in the private sector. The correction seen in 2025 and in the first months of 2026 thus keeps the wages significantly above those seen in 2020-2022 before the rally seen in 2023 and 2024.
The compensation to employees calculated as a share of GDP, a broad measure of wage sustainability, eased from record levels above 47% in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025 (in seasonally adjusted terms) to 45.2% in Q4 2025. But the reading in the last quarter of 2025 is still above the figures seen in the past, except for quarters with unusually deep economic slowdown (during the first months of the Covid-19 lockdown, for instance).
The metric may indeed reflect other structural factors, such as a shift towards the tertiary sector, where the wage share tends to be typically higher. However, for the industrial sector only, the wage share has increased to 48.2% in Q4 2025 from 40.1% in Q4 2019 – broadly reflecting the industrial activity slowdown.
iulian@romania-insider.com
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