Energo Nuclear, the project company for reactors 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear plant, paid the highest average net wage in March, EUR1,500.
The 37 employees of the Economy Ministry-run company earn more on average than President Traian Basescu (who got EUR1,370 per month last year, according to his personal financial disclosure statement, without specifying whether that was a gross or net amount). Energo Nuclear’s employees make four times the average wage in Romania in March, EUR370.
“There is no reason why a state-owned company should pay three or four times more than the average wage in the entire economy. Average wage in a company is a matter of supply and demand on the market,” said Sorina Donisa, country manager of recruitment and temporary worker leasing company APT.
One other factor, according to Donisa is that state-owned companies employ more people than private sector businesses for similar structures and the former paying higher average wages is a problem, because they are paid for with taxpayers’ money.
Second highest-paying state-owned company is Nuclearelectrica, which has more than 2,000 employees earning more than EUR1,200 on average.
Third in the ranking is Opcom energy exchange, managed by the Economy Ministry, where the 76 employees make more than EUR1,000 per month on average. Most of the highest paying companies are subordinated to the Economy Ministry, according to the ranking provided by the Finance Ministry.
“We must also consider one thing: the gap may be because of the high salaries of the management employees, but even if we were to leave those out, I don’t think the average wage in state-run companies would go down that much,” APT’s Sorina Donisa said.
Almost half of the highest-paying companies employ more than 1,000 people and most employees earning high wages work for Romgaz, whose almost 5,700 staff earn EUR756 in net amount per month on average.
Those working in state-owned companies are paid better than their peers in private companies operating in the same industry. For instance, Teletrans, which is subordinated to the Communications Ministry pays an average net wage of EUR805, while the average net wage in the telecom sector, which includes 43,000 employees, is EUR691 per month, almost 15% lower according to the National Statistics Institute.
Public authority employees earned more than private sector employees, EUR520 compared with EUR370 in average net wage in the industry, which employs most people of the entire private sector, National Statistics Institute data show.
Not even private companies with hefty profits pay their employees as well as state-run companies do. For instance, Grup Servicii Petroliere of businessman Gabriel Comanescu paid almost EUR1,050 in net amount on average to the 364 employees in 2012, the company revealed in a survey conducted by ZF. It posted more than EUR180 million revenue and over EUR32 million net profit last year.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)