Romania’s labour market has developed positively over the last decade, with a significant rise in employment and a notable decline in unemployment. However, as Chapter 2 outlines, major challenges remain: labour force participation has risen but remains low in international comparison, with ample scope for Romania to boost employment particularly for women, young people, older workers, low-educated workers and people from the Roma community; employment growth has been somewhat stronger in low‑skill than in high‑skill occupations, contrary to the trend observed in most European OECD countries; labour productivity has shown robust growth, but remains low in OECD comparison; and undeclared work is widespread.
OECD Reviews of Labour Market and Social Policies: Romania 2025
In the context of a rapidly shrinking working-age population and low employment rates, particularly among young people and low-educated workers, policies to promote workforce training, upskilling and reskilling must be a policy priority for Romania. This includes ensuring that all young people – including those in rural areas, from low-income communities and from ethnic minorities – leave the education system with the basic skills and vocational skills they need to gain a foothold in the labour market. It also means providing adult workers – both employed and unemployed – with relevant and attractive training options that raise their productivity and wages and help them adapt to a changing labour market (OECD, 2021[1]).
3.1.1. Too many young people fail to acquire the basic and vocational skills they need to gain a foothold in the labour market
Poor educational outcomes of young people are a major concern in Romania and one main driver of the high share of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET, see Figure 2.5). Romania has not yet achieved universal participation in primary education, and enrolment in lower‑secondary education is low: net enrolment rates at both education levels equalled around 84% in 2022 according to national estimates (OECD, 2025[2]; UNESCO, 2024[3]). In the 2022 PISA survey (OECD, 2023[4]; 2023[5]), 15‑year‑olds in Romania performed substantially below the OECD average in mathematics, reading and science. Approximately 49% of Romanian pupils do not achieve baseline levels of proficiency in mathematics (i.e. score below Level 2), 42% in reading, and 44% in science, far more than in the OECD on average (OECD, 2023[4]; 2024[6]). The World Bank estimates that, pre‑pandemic, 41% of school leavers in Romania were functionally illiterate, and that this share may have increased by up to 10 percentage points as a result of the COVID‑19 pandemic (World Bank, 2023[7]). Inequalities in learning outcomes are also large: the share of pupils’ mathematics performance that can be explained by their socio‑economic status is greater in Romania than in any other country included in the PISA study (OECD, 2023[4]), and urban-rural disparities in participation and learning outcomes are larger than in any other Central and Eastern European country (OECD, 2024[6]; 2025[2]).
Educational attainment is also low. Romania has the highest rate of early school leaving in the European Union: 16.6% of 18‑24 year‑olds had not completed upper-secondary education and were not involved in any education or training in 2023 (EU average of 9.5%; Eurostat (2024[8])). Furthermore, the early school leaving rate in Romania has shown no improvement over the last years (see also the discussion in the Economic Survey 2022 (OECD, 2022[9])). Early school leaving is particularly widespread in rural areas, at a rate of 27.5% (Eurostat, 2024[10]). Among young Roma between the ages of 20‑24, only about one in five (22%) reported having completed upper-secondary education in 2021 (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2023[11]). Completion rates in tertiary education are only little more than half as high as the OECD average (25% of 25‑34 year‑olds had a tertiary-level qualification in 2022, compared to 47% in the OECD on average) and have been stagnating over the last decade (Eurostat, 2024[12]; OECD, 2024[13]).
Modernising the vocational education and training (VET) system is an important lever for Romania to improve educational outcomes and smooth the school-to-work transition, particularly for less academically minded students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds (see also OECD (2022[9]; 2025[2])). More than half (57%) of upper‑secondary students in Romania were enrolled in vocational programmes in 2022 – a figure above the EU‑27 average (49%), though well below the rates of up to 70% seen in Austria, Czechia, the Netherlands and Slovenia (Eurostat, 2024[14]).1 Most of VET programmes in Romania include a substantial work-based component: in three‑year professional VET programmes (EQF Level 3), for example, work‑based learning should account for around half of programme contents and is provided by professional schools in collaboration with employers.2 However, in many cases, practical training mainly takes place in workshops and laboratories simulating a workplace environment rather than with employers (OECD, 2025[2]). A dual-VET pathway was made available in 2017/18 and accounted for around 16% of all students enrolled in professional VET programmes in 2022/23, up from 5% in 2017/18, with training primarily offered by larger employers. However, VET in Romania suffers from insufficient financial resources, access to education and training is unequal, and rates of early leaving are high, particularly among students from rural and poor communities (Cedefop, 2021[15]).3 Socio‑economically disadvantaged students, who are less likely to do well in the academic examination for admission to upper-secondary education, tend to be directed to vocational programmes regardless of their preferences and career goals (OECD, 2025[2]). And many VET graduates struggle with the transition to work: within the first three years of graduation, less than two in three (61%) young people with a vocational degree who are not in education or training were in employment in 2023, though the employment rate of graduates with a general degree is slightly lower still (60%). Both rates are among the lowest across EU countries (EU averages of 79% and 65%; Eurostat (2024[16])).
Romania has launched policy initiatives in various areas in recent years to improve young people’s educational outcomes and skills, better support them with the school-to-work transition, and reconnect young people who are out of education and work. These efforts have focused on:
Preventing drop-out: A National Programme to Reduce School Drop-out (PNRAS) implemented by the Ministry of Education targets public primary and lower‑secondary schools with medium to high drop‑out rates. It awards grants of up to EUR 200 000 per school to at least 2 500 schools with a high priority among schools identified by the Early Warning Mechanism in Education. The programme aims to reduce drop‑out in participating institutions by at least 25%, raise school completion, and improve student performance. It comes with an overall budget of EUR 543 million over the period 2021‑26 financed under Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), and funds various expenditures, including teacher training, pedagogical and social support activities – such as remedial courses, after-school activities, school counsellors and mediators in Roma communities, school guidance, and parental education courses –, and equipment and software.
Reforming VET: Romania has taken substantial steps in recent years to modernise its VET system, including measures to improve quality and labour market relevance, broaden access, increase flexibility, and raise attractiveness and participation (Cedefop, 2024[17]). One notable initiative has been the innovative ReCONECT project, launched in December 2020, which introduced mechanisms for forecasting skill needs, tracking VET graduates, and monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of public training policies. Romania is also introducing a new dual model of vocationally oriented tertiary degrees to provide a coherent pathway from upper-secondary vocational programmes to higher education (OECD, 2025[2]), and 29 regional integrated campuses for dual education will be developed. Other areas of policy action have included investments in teacher training; equipment for practice‑oriented training in VET school workshops and IT labs; a reform of the scholarship system for VET students; and information and promotion campaigns.
Monitoring the school-to-work transition: The mechanism for monitoring the labour market integration of young graduates developed under the ReCONECT project permits tracing the career trajectories of all young people who complete a programme at upper-secondary vocational and higher education institutions for a period of six years after graduation. It relies on a newly established database, finalised in December 2023, that combines administrative records from the Ministry of Education, the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, the NAE, the Labour Inspectorate, and the Registry of Commerce.
Providing outreach to NEETs: In a nationwide initiative that ran until March 2022 Romania reached out to over 200 000 unregistered NEETs aged 16 to 24 years with the help of mobile teams. These teams visited communities, organised face‑to-face meetings to inform NEETs about the benefits and services available through the NAE, and registered 190 000 of them with the NAE (European Commission, 2022[18]). The NAE moreover provides financial incentives to young people who register as jobseekers within 60 days of their graduation, either through a one‑off insertion bonus of RON 1980 (EUR 400) if they find full-time employment, or else by paying them the same sum as a cash out-of-work benefit stretched over a period of six months. Romania also extended the official NEET definition to include young people up to the age of 30 years (previously: 24 years) to make targeted employment support available to a larger number of young people.
In May 2024, Romania adopted a new National Youth Strategy 2024‑27 to replace the previous strategy that had expired in 2020. The document aims at strengthening the co‑operation and collaboration between national and local public authorities and non-governmental organisations to support young people in various areas, including by facilitating their access to quality education, increasing their employment capacity and supporting entrepreneurship, and creating opportunities for young people from rural areas.
3.1.2. Boosting adult learning will be necessary to address Romania’s large skill shortages and mismatches
Romania’s labour market is characterised by persistent skills shortages and mismatches, which are likely to increase further with the digital and green transitions (see OECD (2025[2])). Horizontal (i.e. field‑of‑study) mismatch is large in Romania, with close to 40% of workers employed in a field different from the one they are specialised in (OECD, 2022[9]). Vertical mismatch is also widespread: in high-skill, blue‑collar occupations, the share of undereducated workers is greater than it is in peer countries, while many workers in low-skill, blue‑collar occupations are overeducated (Tsoungui Belinga, Butcher and Valerio, 2020[19]). Reasons for this widespread mismatch include the insufficient alignment of Romania’s upper‑secondary education system with labour market needs, and very low, though slowly rising, rates of tertiary education (Eurostat, 2024[12]).4 In the 2019 World Bank Enterprise Surveys, companies in Romania named the lack of adequate workforce skills as their most important constraint for doing business (World Bank, 2023[7]). Less than one‑in-three working-age adults in Romania have basic digital skills, the lowest share across all EU countries (Eurostat, 2024[20]).5
In this context, adult learning has an important role to play in promoting workers’ employability, boosting their productivity and earnings potential, and ensuring that employers’ skill needs are met. However, despite recent increases, participation rates in adult learning remain very low in Romania. In 2023, only 6.7% of 25‑64 year‑olds reported having participated in formal or non-formal education and training over the last four weeks. This is little more than half the EU average (12.7%) and lower than in any EU-OECD country, except for Greece (Figure 3.1).6 The participation rate for low-educated adults is lower still, at 1.4% (EU average of 5.2%), a particular concern given that about one‑in-five adults in Romania have not gone beyond lower‑secondary education (Eurostat, 2024[12]).7
Adult participation in formal and/or non-formal education, persons aged 25‑64, 2023
Note: Persons who participated in formal and/or non-formal education and training in the previous 4 weeks. Data refer to 2022 for the Slovak Republic.
Source: Eurostat dataset: Participation rate in education and training (last 4 weeks) by sex and educational attainment level (accessed 4 June 2024).
Low participation in adult learning reflects in part the lack of investment of many firms in the skill formation of their workers (see also OECD (2025[2])). The Romanian Labour Code requires all employers to ensure that their employees participate in training at least every two years (every three years in firms with fewer than 21 employees), with the costs of this training borne by the employer. If the employer does not meet this requirement, the employee is entitled to a training leave, paid by the employer, of up to 10 working days or up to 80 hours. However, this vocational training requirement is too vague to effectively promote quality employer-provided training. According to the legislation, type and duration of the training are mutually agreed between employer and the worker and fixed in the labour contract. In practice, employers can fulfil the training requirement by providing even very short courses in the workplace at minimal expense, and the training provision through employers is not systematically monitored.8 The NAE offers limited public financial support to employers who train their workers via two small subsidy programmes for apprenticeships and traineeships out of the unemployment insurance budget.9 According to survey data, only 17.5% of companies in Romania provided their workers with continuing vocational training in 2020, the lowest share across EU countries and far below the EU average of 67.4% (Eurostat, 2023[21]).10 And since training quality is suboptimal and engaging in training usually does not unlock salary or career progression many workers do not see any professional or personal benefits of engaging in training (IFC, 2023[22]; OECD, 2025[2]). Meanwhile, training for jobseekers only accounts for a fraction of the resources available for employment support by the NAE (see discussion in the following section).
Romania has been developing different initiatives and strategic framework documents to guide and finance policy efforts aimed at raising participation in adult learning. The government recently adopted a new Adult National Training Strategy (ANTS) for the period 2024‑27, prepared by the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity, as well as a National Strategy for Adult Continuing Education 2024‑30 (NSACE), prepared by the Ministry of Education. The two strategies aim at building capacity and facilitating access to adult learning, assuring training quality, improving equity in training participation, and promoting the development of adults’ green and digital competences. As a first concrete measure under the ANTS, the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity will carry out an extensive national media campaign to highlight the importance of adult learning, raise awareness of training options, and change public perceptions. Under the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), Romania funds several initiatives that aim at supporting the training of workers, including two calls for projects, one focusing on training low-qualified workers in seven less-developed regions, a second one on financing the training, upskilling and skill certification of 23 000 employees in competitive economic sectors, research, development and innovation. Discussions are ongoing also about introducing financial support for people who participate in adult learning activities, possibly in the form of loans, grants or tax incentives. A pilot programme for a “French-style” individual learning account for workers in the construction sector is currently being developed jointly with the NAE and the social partners and could still be launched in 2024.
Romania provides employment support through the NAE under the authority of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. The NAE has a territorial structure, with agencies in each of Romania’s 41 counties plus the city of Bucharest, as well as 230 local agencies or offices. Its primary functions include registering jobseekers and vacancies, administering unemployment benefits, implementing active labour market programmes (ALMPs), and providing guidance, counselling and training. NAE support is available to jobseekers and employed workers alike, and only a minority of currently registered jobseekers – about 18% – receive unemployment benefits.11 Recipients of Romania’s primary minimum‑income benefit, the recently introduced Minimum Inclusion Income (MII), must register with the NAE as jobseekers if they are out of work and have at least partial work capacity. For details on the design and coverage of out‑of‑work benefits in Romania, see Chapter 5.
Spending on ALMPs in Romania is very low in OECD comparison (see also OECD (2022[9]; 2025[2])). In 2019, the year prior to the COVID‑19 crisis, Romania dedicated only around 0.02% of its GDP to ALMPs. This would place Romania in the penultimate position among OECD countries, ahead only of Mexico and it is less than one‑twentieth of the average spending across OECD countries (around 0.4% of GDP; Figure 3.2, Panel A). Up until the COVID‑19 crisis, spending levels in Romania largely stagnated relative to GDP, though the resources available per jobseeker somewhat increased as unemployment declined (Figure 3.2, Panel B). When the COVID‑19 crisis hit in 2020, Romania raised spending by a factor of 1.6, to about 0.035% of GDP, as jobseeker numbers rose. However, also this figure was much below those in most OECD countries. Precise comparisons of ALMP spending during the crisis are hindered by cross-country disparities in how spending on job retention schemes is accounted for. More recent data on ALMP spending across countries were not available yet at the time of drafting.
Consequently, Romania struggles to effectively provide employment support to all jobseekers, fight high inactivity, and contribute to addressing employers’ growing skill needs. Only a small share of jobseekers registers with the NAE: few are entitled to unemployment benefits, payment rates are low (see Chapter 5), and the available employment support is limited. Of those who do register, about 80% are low‑skilled, including recipients of minimum-income support who have to register with the NAE to meet their activity requirements. Many more out-of-work people in Romania are inactive, i.e. not actively looking for work, including most young NEETs (see Chapter 2). And while employers are legally required to communicate their vacancies to the NAE within five working days, many fail to do so and recruit through other channels instead.
Note: OECD is an unweighted average of the 34 member countries shown. Category 1.2 (administration of LMP support and measures) is excluded in both Panels for comparative purposes.
Source: Eurostat dataset: Labour market expenditure (Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania), OECD Data Explorer • Labour Market Programmes (cat 210) and OECD Data Explorer • Employment and unemployment by five‑year age group and sex - indicators for unemployment.
Given limited resources and a pool of comparatively disadvantaged registered jobseekers, the NAE has been prioritising bringing people into work as opposed to investing in upskilling and reskilling jobseekers. In 2020, the last year with internationally comparable data, over 90% of ALMP spending went to employment incentives, mainly in the form of wage subsidies to employers who hired registered jobseekers; only around 7% went to training (Figure 3.2, Panel B). For comparison, OECD countries dedicated on average only about 25% of their ALMP spending to employment incentives, while about 33% went to training. More recent national‑level data on ALMP participation show a further rise of beneficiaries of employment incentives, notably hiring subsidies for persons over 45, and a stagnation in training participation numbers since 2020.
Romania’s strong reliance on employment incentives as the main instrument of employment support may well be adequate, but it comes with drawbacks. International studies find employment incentives to be among the most effective tools for bringing jobseekers into work, including for low‑educated jobseekers and those who may lack the skills required for training participation. However, they produce deadweight losses if they go to employers that would have hired a jobseeker anyway, particularly if – as in Romania – they are quite generous, not strongly targeted and paid in a relatively tight labour market (OECD, 2022[9]). And as the NAE primarily focuses on bringing low-skilled workers into employment, qualified workers who look for work or training, and employers who seek to hire qualified workers, often do not get in touch with the NAE for support. In this sense, employment support does relatively little to address Romania’s skill shortages.
A number of policy initiatives are ongoing under Romania’s National Reform Programme (Government of Romania, 2023[23]), supported through ESF+ funding, to modernise the NAE structures and services, increase capacity, and improve employment service provision, particularly for vulnerable jobseekers. These include initiatives to digitalise service provision, both on employer and jobseekers’ side; investments in the analysis and forecasting of skill needs, and in the monitoring and evaluation of employment support policies through the ReCONECT project; and investments in the training of NAE staff. Under Romania’s Education and Employment Programme 2021‑27, the NAE has started a project to build capacity to better tailor employment services to jobseekers and improve the visibility and public perception of the NAE.
Strong social dialogue and collective bargaining have an important role to play in raising employment, increasing job quality, and improving the skills and productivity of the Romanian workforce.
3.3.1. Social dialogue in Romania has a solid institutional basis but is weak and ineffective in practice
Romania has a solid institutional framework in place to sustain social dialogue. At national level, the social partners discuss key economic and social issues with the government and civil-society representatives in the Economic and Social Council (ESC), established in 1997 as a consultative and advisory body to Parliament and government. The ESC meets weekly, or more often, under participation of ministers or their state secretaries to issue advisory opinions on regulatory acts and draft legislation in its fields of competence and provide analysis, insights and recommendations on the general economic and social state of affairs. A second high-level tripartite body, the National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue (NTCSD), focuses specifically on issues relating to labour relations, social affairs and collective bargaining. It is chaired by the Prime Minister or the Minister of Labour and convenes the presidents of nationally representative employer and trade union confederations, as well as high-level representatives from the government and selected policy institutions. Below national level, social dialogue is formalised through Social Dialogue Committees (SDCs) at sectoral level (in all ministries) and at local level (in the 42 county prefectures).
However, social dialogue remains weak and ineffective in practice, owing to the fragmentation, low representativeness and limited capacity of social partners, and a lack of trust and history of social dialogue in the country. In its recent country assessments, the European Commission characterised social dialogue in Romania as “formalistic”, concluding that the established institutional framework of dialogue and consultations is insufficiently used to meaningfully engage with social partners and involve them in policy design and implementation. Meanwhile, the social partners show little interest in a voluntary dialogue with each other to improve labour market conditions (European Commission, 2019[24]; 2020[25]). During the OECD review mission, social partners expressed their discontent with the workings of the two key national tripartite bodies, criticising insufficient time to analyse draft legislation and prepare their reactions in the ESC, and well as the NTCSD’s lack of involvement on key policy issues and the insufficient frequency of its meetings.
Romania’s new Social Dialogue Act, passed in December 2022 after years of deliberations, has the potential to improve social dialogue, notably by facilitating representation and reducing hurdles to collective bargaining, see the discussion below.
3.3.2. Collective bargaining coverage is low, but Romania’s new Social Dialogue Act has lifted major restrictions on social dialogue
Most workers in Romania are currently not represented through collective bargaining, and – as in many OECD countries – collective bargaining coverage has declined in Romania. Up until 2011, Romania had a single cross-sectoral collective agreement in place that laid down workers’ minimum rights and obligations and implied virtually universal collective bargaining coverage, including for workers in small and medium-sized enterprises. A new Social Dialogue Act, introduced in 2011 against the backdrop of the economic crisis, substantially restricted social dialogue by abolishing Romania’s national collective agreement and suspending existing sectoral-level agreements, decentralising collective bargaining, raising the hurdles to define representativeness, and redefining economic sectors (Trif, 2013[26]; 2014[27]; Bernaciak, 2015[28]; Vallasek, 2019[29]). Collective bargaining coverage plunged, from 98% in 2008 to around 35% in the years following 2011 (Eurofound, 2015[30]; Visser, Hayter and Gammarano, 2017[31]; Vallasek and Petrovics, 2018[32]). More recent estimates are lower still: labour inspectorate data for 2015 indicate a collective bargaining coverage of 23% (Stoiciu, 2017[33]). OECD data give an adjusted bargaining coverage rate of 15% in 2017 (OECD/AIAS, 2021[34]). These figures are broadly in line with collective bargaining coverage rates in some Central and Eastern European OECD countries, but below the OECD average and much below the levels observed in some other parts of Europe (OECD, 2019[35]). Trade union coverage was estimated at around 21% in 2018 (OECD/AIAS, 2021[34]).
Following the 2011 reform, and until recently, the highest possible level of collective bargaining in Romania was at sectoral level, though most collective bargaining takes place at company level. Sectoral‑level agreements could be negotiated and signed by social partners recognised as representative in a specific sector (Vallasek, 2019[29]), while branch-level agreements were no longer possible. For a sectoral-level agreement to be enforceable, half of all employees in the sector had to work in companies that belong to a signatory employer organisation; if this was not the case, the agreement was valid only at the unit group level. Collective bargaining at company level was mandatory in firms with more than 20 employees. In these firms, employers had to initiate negotiations with trade union representatives, or – if there was no trade union or if the trade union federation was not representative – with elected employee representatives. Hurdles for representativeness were high, such that the very large majority of firm‑level agreements were negotiated and signed by employee representatives, rather than trade unions, who are less immune from employer influence.12 Even in firms where collective bargaining is compulsory, there is no legal provision that would make the signing of a collective agreement mandatory or that would detail what clauses should be included in such an agreement (Vallasek, 2019[29]). During the OECD expert mission, trade union representatives criticised an anti‑union stance of many employers and reported of cases of aggressive discriminatory practices against union leaders and members.
In the context of EU-level efforts to strengthen social dialogue, and in line with commitments made in its NRRP, Romania passed a new Social Dialogue Act in December 2022 that substantially lowered hurdles to collective bargaining and reinstated certain collective bargaining rights, hence reversing parts of its controversial 2011 reform. Cross-sectoral bargaining was again made possible. Sectoral-level agreements, which from 2011 had only applied to companies that were members of the negotiating employer organisation, can again be made legally binding for all employers in a sector.13 Company-level collective bargaining is now compulsory in firms with more than ten employees (previously more than 20), and it can be initiated by both social partners, not just by the employer. Unionisation within and across companies was facilitated by lowering the minimum number of workers required to form a union to ten within a company (previously: 15). The new law also reduced the previously high thresholds for undertaking strikes, and broadened workers’ information and consultation rights.
While the new legislation is yet to fully take effect, Romania is also in the process of drafting an action plan for promoting collective bargaining under the EU 2022 Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages. This Directive requires all EU Member States with a collective bargaining coverage below 80% to develop such an action plan by October 2025, including a clear timeline and concrete measures to progressively increase the collective bargaining coverage.
3.3.3. Romania rapidly raised its minimum wage
Romania has a statutory national-level minimum wage in place that is set by government decision, usually in January of each year. A unique rate applied to all workers until January 2019, when Romania introduced a separate, higher minimum wage for the construction sector to address skill shortages. This differentiated rate exceeds the standard minimum wage for workers in other sectors by currently around 24%. In 2022, in response to the cost‑of‑living crisis, Romania introduced an additional higher minimum wage for workers in agriculture and food processing, which remains in place.14 Employees in construction, agriculture and food processing are under certain conditions also exempt from personal income taxes and benefit from reduced social security contributions. Since 2022, the minimum wage may be paid to employees for a maximum of 24 months, after which they are entitled to a salary increase, the magnitude of which is however not regulated. The Romanian Government determines the level of the minimum wage based on the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals after non-binding consultations with the social partners but without formal involvement of independent expert advice or transparent use of a specific formula (European Commission, 2024[36]; OECD, 2024[37]).
Romania rapidly raised its minimum wage over the last years, at a rate above productivity growth and inflation (OECD, 2022[9]). In the decade leading up to 2023, the gross minimum wage increased nearly fourfold in nominal terms (Figure 3.3, Panel A); after two more recent rises in October 2023 (+10%) and July 2024 (+12%), it now stands at around EUR 740 (EUR 920 for workers in the construction sector). Part of this increase reflects an extraordinary, one‑off rise in the gross wage made in 2018 to compensate workers for fully shifting the social contribution burden from the employer to the employee (see Chapter 5 and note to Figure 3.3). Still, the net minimum wage also more than tripled in nominal terms in the decade up to 2023. This increase compares to a cumulative rise in consumer prices of 43% over the same period (Eurostat, 2024[38]). Progressive increases in the minimum wage have led to a significant rise in the share of employees who are paid the minimum wage, up to an estimated 30% of labour contracts in 2020, compared to still less than 8% in 2011 (Guga, 2021[39]). However, this number needs to be interpreted in a context of widespread undeclared earnings. The rapid rise in the minimum wage has not been enough to effectively tackle widespread in-work poverty,15 partly because a large share of the in‑work poor live in rural areas where salaried employment is rare.
Note: Panel A: Minimum wage on 1 January. The jump in gross average and minimum wages in 2018 reflects a shift in the social insurance contribution burden from the employer to the employee, which was compensated by a corresponding increase in gross earnings. Net average and minimum wages remained unaffected. Panel B: average monthly minimum wage of full-time workers. The OECD is an unweighted average of the 30 countries with statutory and national minimum wages.
Source: OECD Tax-Benefit model version 2.6.0. (Panel A) and OECD Data Explorer • Minimum relative to average wages of full-time workers (Panel B).
Trends in the minimum wage are reflected also in a corresponding rise in Romania’s average wage. The ratio of gross minimum to average wages has remained relatively stable in Romania since 2017, at around 46‑47%, except for a temporary drop during the COVID‑19 crisis. This is a little below the 50% gross‑minimum‑to‑average wage ratio suggested as a possible reference value to assess minimum‑wage adequacy in the EU 2022 Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages.16
Romania’s minimum wage is relatively high in OECD comparison when measured against the national median wage. In the latest available OECD earnings data for 2023, Romania’s minimum wage stood at about 56% of the median wage (Figure 3.3, Panel B). This is in line with the OECD average, but higher than in most peer countries. A large share of workers in Romania, about 13% in 2022, receive pay close to the minimum wage (OECD, 2024[37]).
Under its NRRP, Romania has committed to introducing a new minimum wage setting mechanism based on objective criteria consistent with job creation and competitiveness, and a corresponding government decision is currently under preparation. Such a mechanism could increase the predictability of the wage setting process, ensure that minimum wage increases reflect economic fundamentals, and help balance concerns about worker purchasing power with the need to ensure Romania’s competitivity (see also the discussion in the two recent Economic Surveys (OECD, 2022[9]; 2024[37])).
References
[28] Bernaciak, M. (2015), “All roads lead to decentralization? Collective bargaining trends and prospects in Central and Eastern Europe”, Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, Vol. 21/3, pp. 373-381, https://doi.org/10.1177/1024258915585947.
[17] Cedefop (2024), Vocational education and training policy briefs 2023 – Romania, http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/638477.
[43] Cedefop (2021), Apprenticeship Governance and In-Company Training: Where Labour Market and Education Meet, https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/files/6203_en.pdf (accessed on 3 March 2024).
[15] Cedefop (2021), Spotlight on VET – 2020 compilation: vocational education and training systems in Europe, http://data.europa.eu/10.2801/667443.
[41] Cerkez, E. (2018), Cedefop European Public Opinion Survey on Vocational Education and Training: Romania, https://cumulus.cedefop.europa.eu/files/vetelib/2018/opinion_survey_VET_Romania_Cedefop_ReferNet.pdf.
[30] Eurofound (2015), Collective bargaining in Europe in the 21st century, Publications Office of the European Union, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/system/files/2015-11/ef1548en.pdf.
[36] European Commission (2024), “In-Depth Review 2024 - Romania”, European Economy Institutional Paper 275, https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/document/download/c5b5a8cb-6114-46e6-b7be-e47c689022c4_en?filename=ip275_en.pdf.
[18] European Commission (2022), Outreach and activation of NEETs by use of Mobile Teams, https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=25885&langId=en.
[25] European Commission (2020), Country Report Romania 2020, https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/document/download/f76fee03-9965-4077-ac21-3c5f66ca4ded_en.
[24] European Commission (2019), Country Report Romania 2019, https://commission.europa.eu/system/files/2019-02/2019-european-semester-country-report-romania_en.pdf.
[11] European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2023), Roma in 10 European Countries: Roma Survey 2021 - Main Results, Publications Office of the European Union, https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2022-roma-survey-2021-main-results2_en.pdf.
[8] Eurostat (2024), Early leavers from education and training by sex, https://doi.org/10.2908/SDG_04_10.
[10] Eurostat (2024), Early leavers from education and training by sex and degree of urbanisation, https://doi.org/10.2908/EDAT_LFSE_30.
[16] Eurostat (2024), Employment rates of young people not in education and training by sex, educational attainment level and years since completion of highest level of education, https://doi.org/10.2908/EDAT_LFSE_24.
[38] Eurostat (2024), HICP - annual data (average index and rate of change), https://doi.org/10.2908/PRC_HICP_AIND.
[20] Eurostat (2024), Individuals’ level of digital skills (from 2021 onwards), https://doi.org/10.2908/ISOC_SK_DSKL_I21.
[44] Eurostat (2024), In-work at-risk-of-poverty rate by age and sex - EU-SILC survey, https://doi.org/10.2908/ILC_IW01.
[12] Eurostat (2024), Population by educational attainment level, sex and age (%), https://doi.org/10.2908/EDAT_LFSE_03.
[14] Eurostat (2024), Pupils enrolled in upper-secondary education by programme orientation, sex and age, https://doi.org/10.2908/EDUC_UOE_ENRS05.
[21] Eurostat (2023), Enterprises providing training by type of training and size class - % of all enterprises, https://doi.org/10.2908/TRNG_CVT_01S.
[23] Government of Romania (2023), “National Reform Programme 2023”, https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/a7459a50-b33b-4e9c-be08-9fc9a8309683_en?filename=ROMANIA%20NRP%202023%20EN.pdf.
[39] Guga, S. (2021), “Salariul minim și traiul minim decent - De la mituri la oportunități [The minimum wage and a decent living - From myths to opportunities]”, Muncă și justiție socială, https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/bukarest/17786.pdf.
[22] IFC (2023), Country Private Sector Diagnostic - Creating Markets in Romania, https://www.ifc.org/content/dam/ifc/doc/2023/romania-country-private-sector-diagnostic-en.pdf.
[42] National Institute of Statistics (2022), Caracteristici ale formării profesionale în întreprinderile din România în anul 2020 [Characteristics of professional training in Romanian companies in 2020], https://insse.ro/cms/sites/default/files/field/publicatii/caracteristici_ale_formarii_profesionale_in_intreprinderile_din_romania_in_anul_2020.pdf.
[2] OECD (2025), Education and Skills in Romania, Reviews of National Policies for Education, OECD Publishing, Paris.
[13] OECD (2024), Employment rates of adults, by educational attainment, age group and gender, http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/bl (accessed on 2024).
[37] OECD (2024), OECD Economic Surveys: Romania 2024, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/106b32c4-en.
[6] OECD (2024), “Reforming school education in Romania: Strengthening governance, evaluation and support systems”, OECD Education Policy Perspectives, No. 92, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5333f031-en.
[40] OECD (2023), Education at a Glance 2023: Country Note - Romania, https://gpseducation.oecd.org/Content/EAGCountryNotes/EAG2023_CN_ROU_pdf.pdf (accessed on 26 February 2024).
[4] OECD (2023), PISA 2022 Results (Volume I): The State of Learning and Equity in Education, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/53f23881-en.
[5] OECD (2023), PISA 2022 Results: Factsheets - Romania, https://www.oecd.org/publication/pisa-2022-results/country-notes/romania-cfe329e8/.
[9] OECD (2022), OECD Economic Surveys: Romania 2022, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e2174606-en.
[1] OECD (2021), OECD Skills Outlook 2021: Learning for Life, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/0ae365b4-en.
[35] OECD (2019), Negotiating Our Way Up: Collective Bargaining in a Changing World of Work, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/1fd2da34-en.
[34] OECD/AIAS (2021), Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts (ICTWSS), http://www.oecd.org/employment/ictwss-database.htm.
[33] Stoiciu, V. (2017), Annual Review of Labour Relations and Social Dialogue: Romania, https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/bratislava/13216.pdf.
[27] Trif, A. (2014), Austerity and Collective Bargaining in Romania, https://doras.dcu.ie/22268/1/Romania_Final.pdf.
[26] Trif, A. (2013), “Romania: collective bargaining institutions under attack”, Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, Vol. 19/2, pp. 227-237, https://doi.org/10.1177/1024258913480600.
[19] Tsoungui Belinga, V., N. Butcher and A. Valerio (2020), Romania’s long-term growth challenge: Raising the alarm of skills deficit, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/romanias-long-term-growth-challenge-raising-the-alarm-of-skills-deficit/.
[3] UNESCO (2024), Total net enrolment rate by level of education, https://data.uis.unesco.org/#.
[29] Vallasek, M. (2019), “Collective Bargaining and Social Dialogue in Romania”, Legal Studies, Vol. 8/1, pp. 119-133, https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=828391.
[32] Vallasek, M. and Z. Petrovics (2018), Case Study: Romania, http://ceelab.eu/assets/images/case_study_romania_en.pdf.
[31] Visser, J., S. Hayter and R. Gammarano (2017), “Trends in collective bargaining coverage: stability, erosion or decline?”, Labour Relations and Collective Bargaining Issue Brief No.1, https://www.ilo.org/media/419851/download.
[7] World Bank (2023), Systematic Country Diagnostic Update - Romania, https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099134003102323181/pdf/BOSIB0480d508207e0805908b215a1d78b8.pdf.
← 1. Romania offers Initial VET (IVET) at upper-secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary level, and most upper‑secondary VET students have direct access to tertiary education upon graduation (Cedefop, 2024[17]). However, only a very small share of young people (3% of all 25‑34 year‑olds) have a post-secondary non-tertiary VET qualification as their highest level of educational attainment (OECD, 2023[40]).
← 2. The share of work-based learning in four‑year technical or vocational programmes is lower (Cedefop, 2021[15]).
← 3. The latest available data on the perceived attractiveness of VET in Romania are unfortunately quite dated and do not account for recent reforms. In 2016, nearly two‑in‑three (62%) survey respondents in Romania held a favourable opinion of upper‑secondary VET in their country, less than the corresponding figure across EU countries on average (68%; Cerkez (2018[41])).
← 4. Among 25‑64 year‑olds in 2023, only 18.6% had a tertiary qualification in Romania compared to 35.1% across the EU on average (Eurostat, 2024[12]).
← 5. Among 25‑64 year‑olds in 2023, only 29.4% of people in Romania had at least basic overall digital skills compared to 58.9% across the EU on average (Eurostat, 2024[20]).
← 6. By a different measure, in 2022, 19.1% of adults in Romania participated in learning activities in the past 12 months, a figure substantially below the EU‑2025 target of 47% (Cedefop, 2024[17]).
← 7. Among 25‑64 year‑olds in 2023, 19.6% had at-most lower secondary education in Romania. This rate is higher than in most EU-OECD countries, though much below the rates in Italy and Spain (around 35%), Portugal (40.6%) and Türkiye (54%; (Eurostat, 2024[12])).
← 8. The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection monitors training provided by authorised providers, without however collecting data on participants’ employment status. In 2022, 300 000 adults completed courses offered by authorised training providers. Employers and non‑authorised training providers are formally required to report on their training activity, but this requirement is not being systematically enforced in practice. Romania’s National Institute of Statistics carries out a survey on employer-provided training every five years (National Institute of Statistics, 2022[42]).
← 9. Employers who offer apprenticeships can benefit from a subsidy of RON 2 250 (EUR 450) per month for the entire duration of the apprenticeship contract. To qualify, they need to advertise these apprenticeship positions through the NAE. As a consequence, candidates primarily come from the limited pool of registered unemployed, who are often low-skilled and difficult to integrate into the labour market. This reduces the likelihood that employers will want to retain the person once the apprenticeship contract, and with it the subsidy, has ended (Cedefop, 2021[43]). Smaller employers often lack the capacity to deal with the bureaucratic requirements that come with the apprenticeship subsidy, including the monthly reporting and regular controls and inspections. This subsidy programme, which has existed since 2005, is very small with less than 180 participants in the first four months of 2024. It is distinct from the upper-secondary level dual-VET programme mentioned in the main text. An even smaller subsidy programme exists since 2013 for employers who offer traineeships for graduates of higher‑education institutions for a period of up to six months, with only a handful of participants in January-April 2024.
← 10. This is consistent with results from the 2019 World Bank Enterprise Surveys, according to which 21% of firms in Romania offered formal training to their employees, compared to 31% of companies on average across countries in the Europe and Central Asia region (31%) and 36% of companies in high-income countries (IFC, 2023[22]).
← 11. These 18% were the average share of registered jobseekers who received unemployment benefits in a given month of 2023, according to NAE statistics.
← 12. About 14% of collective agreements agreed in the years 2011 to 2014 were negotiated and signed by trade unions according to data collected by Stoiciu (2017[33]). The share may have somewhat increased as a result of an amendment made to the Social Dialogue Act in 2016 (Vallasek, 2019[29]). For further information on the criteria for the representativeness of trade unions and employer organisations at national and sectoral level, see Vallasek (2019, pp. 126-127[29]).
← 13. One side effect of this changed rule is that employers no longer have an incentive to leave an employer organisation to avoid having to stick to a collective agreement.
← 14. Between January 2019 and December 2021, a differentiated minimum wage also existed for workers with a tertiary qualification and at least one year of work experience (European Commission, 2024[36]).
← 15. The share of the working-age population at risk of in-work poverty is higher in Romania than in any other European country, at 15% in 2023 (EU average of 8.3%; Eurostat (2024[44])).
← 16. Article 5.4 of Directive (EU) 2022/41 of the European Parliament and of the Council states that “Member States shall use indicative reference values to guide their assessment of adequacy of statutory minimum wages. To that end, they may use indicative reference values commonly used at international level such as 60% of the gross median wage and 50% of the gross average wage, and/or indicative reference values used at national level.” The Directive needs to be implemented by November 2024.