“We don’t want a repeat of the situation in 2008, when the salaries and social security payments rose by 50%, well above productivity levels,” Dragoi told a news conference in Bucharest.
President Traian Basescu told the lawmakers on Wednesday they should find a solution to increase wages in the public sector to pre-austerity levels.
In 2010, the government implemented a series of measures aimed to reduce the budget deficit and increase revenues, including a 25% pay cut in the public sector and a higher sales tax.
Public salaries were since then raised by 15% and the authorities said another slight increase might be implemented sometime this year.
The government targets a budget deficit of 1.9% of the gross domestic product in 2012, down from around 4.4% of GDP in 2011.