October 11 (SeeNews) - Gross salaries in Romania's private sector are expected to increase by an average 8.11% in 2022, after rising by 8.94% this year, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Romania said on Monday.
The salary increase reported for this year is almost twice that previously estimated by the respondent companies in 2020, during a time of economic uncertainty, PwC Romania said in its PayWell 2021 Survey.
"Business leaders had pessimistic expectations in the first half of last year when they estimated a much more severe impact of the crisis on the global economy. As the restrictions that limited activity were lifted, the negative effects on the economy were reduced and companies have managed to grant much higher salary increases than they estimated at the start of the health crisis," PwC Romania country managing partner Dinu Bumbacea said.
"Although double-digit wage increases have returned due to inflation, real earnings have been eroded. For next year, the forecasts are optimistic but moderate, because the effects of the pandemic will continue in the medium term and the economic climate will remain volatile."
The industry sector recorded the highest average salary growth in 2021, of 13.66%, followed by the pharmaceutical sector with a rise of 10.51%, retail with 8.2% and banking with 8.01%.
According to the survey, the highest growth of gross salaries this year were recorded in the sales, administrative services, infrastructure and IT departments of respondent companies. By categories of employees, above-average increases were recorded at the level of 'experts', with other specialists and low-skilled personnel such as workers, operators)receiving an increase close to the market average. The smallest increases this year were in the top management category.
The Bucharest-Ilfov region recorded the highest average gross salary level in Romania, of 8,850 lei ($2,069/ 1,788 euro), almost double the average in the Moldova region.
PwC conducted the survey on 103 private companies from banking, pharmaceuticals and retail. Participation in the survey implied provision of information on the salary, compensation and benefit policies currently in place within the surveyed organisations.
London-headquartered PwC is a multinational professional services network which has been present in Romania since 1991.
(1 euro=4.9470 lei)