​The National Trade Union Bloc proposes to the government to raise the minimum wage to 4,600 lei gross for the construction industry and 3,500 lei gross in agriculture, so that workers in these industries do not lose out after they start paying CASS, but earn a little more than they do now.

How much builders would lose after paying CASS. How much would he earn at a minimum of 4,600 lei

NBS shows that currently the minimum gross salary in construction is 4,000 lei, and the minimum net salary (without payment of CASS and income tax) is 3,150 lei.

The implementation of the increase of the minimum wage in construction to 4,500 lei, as the government planned until recently, will mean that when the law, for which Prime Minister Çolaku took responsibility in parliament, comes into force, the net minimum wage will be reduced by 56 lei.

In order to maintain at least the net value of the minimum wage in the sector, the minimum gross wage in the sector must increase to at least 4,600 lei, says the NBS.

At this value, after the payment of CASS, the minimum net salary will be 3162 lei, which is 12 lei higher than now.

The measure targets more than 417,000 workers in the construction industry, the National Block of Trade Unions claims.

How much would agricultural workers lose after paying CASS. How much would he earn with a minimum of 3,500 lei

In agriculture, the minimum gross salary is currently 3,000 lei, and thanks to CASS and income tax exemptions, agricultural workers have a minimum net salary of 2,363 lei.

In the agricultural sector, the situation is even more complicated, applying the national minimum wage of 3,300 lei would mean a 94 lei reduction in net wages for workers in the sector immediately after the tax comes into effect. of the reform proposed by the Government, reports NBS.

To mitigate the effects of the new fiscal measures, the minimum wage in agriculture should be increased to at least 3,500 lei, the National Bank of Romania says.

With this value, after CASS payment, the minimum net salary will reach 2,406 lei, which is 44 lei higher than the current net salary.

Another scenario is an increase of the minimum wage to 3,450 lei, in which case, after the payment of CASS, the net minimum wage will reach 2,372 lei, which is 9 lei more than it is now.

Why the increase should be carried out by a decree on emergency situations

The National Bank draws the government’s attention to the fact that in order to raise two minimum wages, construction and agriculture, the only way out is to adopt an emergency resolution.

• “Regarding the construction sector, the Government has already initiated the GEO project to increase the minimum wage in this sector, in this case, the only aspect that needs to be clarified is the level of the minimum wage and the date from which it is applicable.
• In the case of agriculture, it is currently necessary to urgently amend Law 135/2022, taking into account that the minimum wage stipulated by the law from 01.10.2023 will be lower than that established by the Government Decision on changing the minimum wage in the country .
• In this case, the minimum wage provided for in Law 135/2022 will become inapplicable, given that it is lower than the national minimum limit.”, This is stated in the press release of NBS.

The government should specify another tax benefit: the deduction of 200 lei

In addition, the SNB warns the government that at the moment, from a legal point of view, the tax credit (200 lei deduction) applied to the national minimum wage according to GEO 168/2022 also needs to be clarified.

• “Initially, the increase of the minimum wage from 3,000 to 3,300 was justified as a compensatory measure for the refusal of the tax benefit provided for by GEO 168/2022, accordingly, an amount of 200 lei is deducted from the base for calculating tax and social assistance. contributions for those whose basic salary is equal to the minimum gross salary in the country.
• At the moment, the situation regarding this object is unclear, it will be valid until 12/31/2023. This means that in the absence of a normative act on the cancellation of this normative act from October, the minimum net salary will increase from 01.10.2023 by 181 lei, from 1898 lei to 2079 lei, starting from 01.01.2024, in the absence of the adoption of another GD to amend the of the minimum wage, the net minimum wage will decrease by 83 lei, from 2,079 lei to 1,996 lei.
• The increase of the minimum wage from 3,000 to 3,300 lei, provided that the benefit of 200 lei is not canceled, will bring additional revenues to the budget of approximately 666 million lei in the last 3 months of the year.
• In case of raising the minimum wage and canceling the benefit, state budget revenues will increase by 1.1 billion lei in the last 3 months of 2023,” states the NBS.

The government is raising the minimum wage from October 1, but has discovered a problem

The minimum wage will increase starting October 1 from 3,000 to 3,300 lei per month, the government decided on Thursday. However, the order to increase wages in construction, agriculture and food industry was removed from the agenda of the Executive after the problem was discovered. According to Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku, the calculations of the Ministry of Finance show that the minimum net salary of workers in these three industries may have decreased due to the introduction of CASS.

• Read the details: VIDEO The government increases the minimum wage from October 1, but discovered a problem. Cholaku: Net minimum wage in construction, agriculture and food industry would decrease due to implementation of CASS