In Romania, minimum wage increases have not been correlated with productivity since 2000, which deepened inflation and impacted firms’ competitiveness, Ovidiu Nicolescu, the president of the Council of Romanian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, or CNIPMMR, said Tuesday.
The measure will seriously affect thousands of SMEs, which will find it difficult to cover the wage increase, he added. They will either go bankrupt or operate in the black market, Nicolescu warned.
Unionists want the minimum wage at RON850 this year, while the Government’s proposition is an increase to RON800 from RON700. The council for social dialog, which gathers representatives of unionists, employers and the government, will soon meet to take a decision. (EUR1=RON4.3894)