Highest salaries in Romania in 2023 were in IT and energy, lowest in manufacturing, accounting

The maximum net salaries in 2023 in Romania were in IT and energy. Manufacturing is at the extremes: it registers the lowest wages, but also among the highest. Lower wages are also in accounting, administrative & operations, and sales, according to data provided by over one million users of Undelucram.ro, the largest online community of employees in Romania.

The highest salary was in IT, and stood at RON 33,000 (EUR 6,640) per month, 8.9% than in 2022. On the other hand, the value of the average and minimum salary in IT increased much less (around RON 200-250) to RON 7,654 net per month and RON 2,650 net per month correspondingly.

IT and energy also saw the highest pay rises, with the advance being RON 2,700 in IT and RON 2,480 in energy.

For a significant proportion of the areas analyzed (marketing, procurement, administrative/operations, accounting, support services) the average salary increased by around 10% in 2023, but there were also much higher increases. In energy, the average salary increased in 2023 by about 25%, and in legal services by 15%.

The value of minimum wages has also increased in each industry, but not significantly (in the range of RON 100-340), according to the Undelucram.ro analysis. The biggest increase in the minimum wage was in energy, from RON 2,350 to 2,690 (RON 340), followed by HR, with an increase of around RON 300 in the monthly net minimum wage.

The highest minimum wages in 2023 were in energy (RON 2,690), IT (RON 2,650) and procurement (RON 2,450). In contrast, the lowest minimum wages were in production (RON 2,050), sales, administrative/operations, and customer support, all three with a minimum wage of RON 2,100.

At the same time, last year in all fields the minimum wage was above RON 2,000, compared to 2022, when there were still sectors (such as production, HR, marketing, administrative/operations, and customer support) where employees earned RON 1,900. The increase was driven by the fact that the net minimum wage was raised in October to RON 2,079 (from 1,898), with around 1.9 million employees benefiting from this government measure.

“Our analysis shows that wages increased in 2023 in all areas and across all value segments. Therefore, the shortage of candidates in the market is driving employers to make even more efforts in finding the right people, and this comes with a better calibration between their profiles and the right salary expectations,” said Costin Tudor, CEO and founder of Undelucram.ro.

“At the same time, the annual change in the consumer price index has put and may put even more pressure on wage increases. However, beyond inflation or lack of people, an important factor in the evolution of salaries in the coming years will be their mandatory transparency in the European Union,” he added.