A store associate will therefore earn at least 3,016 lei (EUR648) in gross amount per month or RON1,800 in net amount and a warehouse associate will earn a RON3,301 gross salary per month.
The gross minimum wage in Romania is RON1,900 (RON1,162 in net amount), which means a Lidl store associate will earn over 50% more.
The average gross wage in Romania stood at RON3,662 (RON2,629 in net amount) in December under the previous taxation system, which put the employer in charge of paying the social security taxes, according to the National Statistics Institute data. The gross salary will probably go up by 20% as of January (since social security taxes were moved from employer to employee), while the net salary will probably remain unchanged.
The move Lidl, the third largest retailer in Romania and one of the main employers in the country, made, will put pressure on the minimum wage in the entire economy. Other employers will be forced to rethink their salary policy to stay competitive on an already difficult labor market. More than 1.5 million people or one third of the total employees in Romania earn the minimum wage. Minimum wage raises will also create a pressure for average wage raises.
“Lidl Romania preserves its leading position among retail employers (…). The store and warehouse associates will see the biggest impact. Moreover, the company will expand the range of perks offered to employees in 2018,” Lidl officials say.
Lidl positioned itself as the highest-paying retailer in Romania ever since its entry in the country when it bought Plus Discount chain in 2011. It has constantly gone public with its salary figures, despite the retail market keeping such information a secret, because store assistants and cashiers were most often paid the minimum wage, which made those jobs the worst paid along with hotel maids and workers in textile mills. About 90% of the employees of a retailer work in stores. Supermarket and hypermarket chains are among the biggest players in the economy and they employ thousands or even more than 10,000 people.
Lidl’s raises in the past few years come at difficult time for the market, when companies in all industries have been complaining they are having trouble finding employees. Personnel turnover is one of the highest in retail, with one in four people leaving the company they work for in one year. The personnel shortage has made companies start to give raises, although most retailers are still keeping salaries a secret.
A retail top executive has recently said people leaving do not necessarily go to work for competitors, they are also courted by manufacturers. Some of them even decide to leave the country altogether.
Lidl’s latest raises have nothing to do with the transfer of the social security taxes from employer to employee, as the retailer has already taken care of that issue in January. (EUR1=RON4.6561)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)