The minimum wage shall be changed as from 1st January. What should employers do?

Government Decision 1.071/2021 it stipulates that starting January 1, 2022, the gross minimum wage per country will be lei 2.550. At the same time, the differentiated minimum wage for higher education, which this year is 2.350 lei, it will disappear from 2022 – the value of this is not increased by the recent ruling (as there have also been no changes in the minimum for construction workers).

‘Any modification (…) during the performance of the individual contract of employment requires the conclusion of an amendment to the contract prior to the modification, except where such modification is expressly provided for by law or in the applicable collective agreement.’, provides for the Labor Code, on the elements of the employment contract, including the salary.

So what does this change mean for employers?

At the level of the relationship between the firm and the employee paid at the minimum wage in the economy, the increase must be reflected in writing before the change takes place.

This amendment may be made by a collective decision or an amendment to the employment contract. Deadline: 31 December 2021.

Moreover, the increase in the minimum wage from 1 January 2022 means that employers have two obligations to fulfill by reference to that deadline:

• the first is to formally transpose into employment relations with those who were already paid the minimum in the economy the increase applicable since January;
• the second is to report the change to Revisal.

As regards retransmission in Revisal, the Government’s judgment of 905/2017 provides that the change must be reported within 20 working days of its occurrence. Therefore, the deadline does not relate in any way to the date when the HG with the new minimum wage entered into force. Deadline: 31 January 2022.

More details about this legislative change and its impact in the economy, you can find here.