SALARY LEVEL IN ROMANIA: AVERAGE SALARY
The average salary in Romania is of EURO 680 net in 2019, an increase of 15% versus 2018 and even an increase of 60% versus 2015, because this average salary was subsequently established at approximately EURO 425 net.
Nevertheless, this national average has significant differences (i) sectoral on the one hand and (ii) regional on the other.
SECTORAL VARIATIONS
Net salaries in the public sector are, in average, significantly higher (in average EURO 830 net per month) than in the private sector (in average EURO 570 net per month).
Even in the private sector itself, there is significant variability with high average salaries in IT, for example (approximately EURO 1,500 net per month) and low average salaries in the textile industry (approximately EURO 380 net per month).
REGIONAL VARIATIONS
Bucharest and its suburbs
The average net salary in Bucharest is EURO 830 per month.
The high level of the average salary in Bucharest versus the level of salaries in Romania in aggregate is explained by the fact that in Bucharest are focused the best paid jobs (especially the presence of numerous headquarters of companies and jobs in the field of services with high added value, such as IT, banking services, insurance, for example), as well as many public jobs, which we noticed, are in average better paid than jobs in the private sector.
Salaries also remain high in the vicinity of Bucharest, with an average net salary of EURO 700 in the Ilfov County (adjacent to Bucharest).
The Transylvania region
Salaries in the Transylvania region (the Cluj, Timiș, Sibiu, Brașov, Mureș, Prahova, Arad counties) are significantly higher than in the rest of the country, with an average salary of EURO 650 net per month and even an average of EURO 740 net per month in the Cluj County.
These high salary levels are explained by the existence of a dense industrial network thriving due to the geographical proximity of Hungary (the gateway to the EU) and the presence of large universities.
The regions of Pitesti and Constanta
Argeș, the county where the city of Pitesti is located (where the Dacia factories are, for example), and Constanța county have both a common trace: while these counties were in the early 2010s among the counties where salaries were among the highest in country (at the same level as in Transylvania), these counties are now in the middle of the scale (with an average net salary of about EURO 580 per month), as salaries have progressed here more slowly than in the rest of Romania
The Moldovan region of Romania
On the contrary, while the Moldovan region of Romania was one of the poorest in Romania, salaries grew faster in this region than in the rest of the country, so that the Moldovan region of Romania is close to the national average (with an average net salary of EURO 550 per month in the Vaslui, Neamț and Botoșani counties), although one has to admit that Vrancea and Suceava are still a little behind for the time being (with average net salaries of approximately EURO 520 per month). In turn, the Iași and Galați counties get along very well with an average net salary of EURO 620 per month in the Galați county and even EURO 650 per month in the Iași county, due to the industrial network of these counties (for example in the steel industry) and of their significant universities.
Average of salaries in southern Romania
With the exception of the Bucharest region, Prahova (Ploiești county), Argeș (Pitești county) and Dolj (county of the charming city of Craiova), the southern arch of Romania has significantly lower average salaries than the national average. Thus, for example, the average net salary in the Teleorman county is of only EURO 500 per month and around EURO 530 in the Vâlcea, Brăila, Ialomița, Hunedoara, Călărași or Caraș-Severin counties.
This weakness versus the national average is partly explained by the predominantly agricultural nature of these counties.
The average salary in the northern region of Romania
The same is true for the northern region of Romania, which is also essentially focused on agriculture, where salaries are among the lowest in Romania: the average net salaries in the Maramureș, Bihor, Harghita and Bistrița-Năsăud counties are around EURO 520 per month.
Source: INS (National Statistics Institute) - Article written based on data from 2019 - The described salaries are understood as the net average salaries converted and rounded off into EURO.