July 11 (SeeNews) - Some 75% of companies in Romania have increased or plan to increase wages this year in order to mitigate the effects of a strong rise in consumer prices, consultancy PwC Romania said on Monday.
A quarter of the companies active in Romania have decided to maintain the salaries' budget at the same level as in 2021, according to the PwC Romania HR Barometer conducted by PwC Romania in June.
The average increase of the total salary budget in 2022 is estimated at an annual 9.4%.
According to the survey, 41% of companies have revised up their salaries' budgets, but not enough to compensate for the loss of income caused by inflation, a quarter have adjusted or will adjust wages with the level of inflation for all employees, and 9% have adjusted with inflation only for certain categories of employees. The average inflation rate to which the responding companies relate when adjusting the budget is on average 8.2%, the survey showed.
Romania's consumer prices rose by 14.49% year-on-year in May, compared to 13.76% in April, according to latest data from the national statistical office, INS. Romana's average net monthly wage fell by a real 2.1% year-on-year in April and was 2.8% lower on the month to 3,967 lei ($860/ 802 euro), INS data showed.
"Companies are making budget adjustments for wages in an attempt to cover rampant inflation, but it is very difficult to fully cover this 19-year high level of prices. Usually, companies that do not encounter financial difficulties due to the current context or against the background of the pandemic are considering compensation, but others are more reserved, still trying to compensate in other ways," PwC Romania senior manager for people and organisations Madalina Pasca said.
"Given the financial stress felt by employees, we see that many organisations are beginning to put more emphasis on the area of benefits in the category of financial products such as private pensions, insurance, discounts on various financial services and advance payment of salaries."
The largest increases in the total salary budget in 2022 versus 2021 will be seen in the consumer goods and distribution sector (13.6%), in financial services (12.8%) and in the energy sector (10.3%), while the lowest will be in insurance (5.6%) and pharma (6.4%).
The PwC Romania HR Barometer survey was carried out between June 27-29, based on the information provided by 100 companies in the sectors of IT&C, BPO, industrial products, energy, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, financial services and retail.
(1 euro=4.9430 lei)