The National Trade Union Bloc (BNS) said the increase in Romania's gross national minimum wage, which took effect on 1 July 2026, comes six months later than required, arguing that workers have lost more than 13% of their purchasing power and that the minimum wage should be raised to 5,000 lei gross from 1 January 2027 to make up for the erosion.

'The government delayed the minimum wage increase by six months, and employees have borne the cost. Under Law No. 283/2024 on amendments to legislation governing the establishment of adequate minimum wages, the new minimum wage should have taken effect on 1 January 2026. According to the mechanism set out in Law 283/2024, the minimum wage should have been set at between 4,325 lei, the amount resulting from the statutory calculation formula, and 4,590 lei, the upper limit established by law, representing 52% of the average gross wage. Unfortunately, employees earning the minimum wage, as well as those paid between 4,050 lei and 4,325 lei, around 1.76 million workers in total, became bargaining chips in negotiations between the government and the business community. The government not only opted for the lowest increase permitted under the law but also postponed it until July 2026,' BNS said in a release.

The union confederation argued that the government used the delay as a compensatory measure for businesses affected by recent fiscal and economic decisions, including energy market liberalisation, higher VAT, increased excise duties and the introduction of a turnover tax, even though many of these measures had already been passed on to consumers through higher prices.

As a result, the cost of the government's policies has been shifted, both directly and indirectly, onto the country's lowest-paid workers. During 2025, the purchasing power of the net minimum wage of 2,574 lei fell by around 227 lei a month, while inflation in the first half of 2026 resulted in a further monthly loss of about 111 lei.

According to BNS, minimum wage earners have therefore lost around 340 lei in monthly purchasing power over just 18 months, equivalent to a decline of approximately 13%.

Against that backdrop, the minimum wage increase introduced on 1 July 2026, combined with the reduction in the tax deduction from 300 lei to 200 lei, does not even offset the loss of purchasing power accumulated over the past year and a half, the union said.

'It is no surprise that Romania continues to rank among the worst-performing countries in the European Union for in-work poverty. The minimum wage is still far from adequate when measured against the criteria laid down in European Directive 2022/2041 or ILO Convention No. 130 of 1970, and delaying its adjustment only deepens social and economic disparities. During the transposition of Directive 2022/2041, BNS called for the introduction of legal correction mechanisms to adjust the minimum wage whenever there are significant differences between forecast and actual values for the indicators used to calculate it. We are now in exactly such a situation. The 2025 minimum wage was calculated using an average inflation forecast of 4.4%, whereas actual inflation reached 7.3%. The 2026 minimum wage was based on an inflation forecast of 5.8%, but the forecast has already been revised to 7.9%. This should be the starting point for setting the minimum wage for 2027,' the press release reads.

Under Law 283/2024, BNS said the government, employers' organisations and trade unions should shortly resume negotiations on the gross national minimum wage that will take effect on 1 January 2027.

The union confederation said it was already calling on the future government to set the gross national minimum wage at 5,000 lei from 1 January 2027 in order to restore the purchasing power lost over the past two years and comply with the principles underpinning the European framework for adequate minimum wages.

'The introduction of a statutory mechanism for setting the minimum wage was intended to prevent it from being used as an instrument of electoral manipulation or as a means of securing the goodwill of the business community. The minimum wage should be set transparently and should reflect the needs of workers and their families, while taking account of national economic and social conditions and safeguarding both access to employment and incentives to seek work. Minimum wages that ensure a decent standard of living can help reduce poverty, support domestic demand and purchasing power, improve incentives to work, narrow wage inequalities, reduce the gender pay gap and in-work poverty, and limit income losses during economic downturns,' BNS said. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Oana Tilica; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)