Romania labor market shows record employment amid widening wage gap

Romania has reached a historic milestone with nearly 6 million active employees, yet official statistics mask a significant disparity in actual earnings. While the national average net salary exceeds 5,800 lei, the median salary—representing the real middle level of the population—is estimated to be only between 3,600 and 3,800 lei.

Over 1.5 million Romanians work for the minimum wage, which is slightly above 2,690 lei net, primarily in sectors such as commerce, hospitality, agriculture, and textiles. This economic polarization is driven by high earners in IT, energy, and banking who inflate the national average, while a large portion of the workforce faces subsistence-level income.

Online discussions, including those on Reddit, highlight the difficulty of maintaining a decent standard of living on 5,000 lei. For a single person, essential costs such as rent, utilities, and food consume the vast majority of such an income, leaving little room for savings or unexpected expenses. Some highly educated young professionals report surviving on monthly incomes below 3,000 lei.