The minimum salary of 300 USD in economy will be reached in December 2008, while an average salary of such a value in the budgetary sector in the first quarter of 2009, Deputy Minister of Economy Sergiu Sainciuc said. At Wednesday’s meeting of the Government, Sainciuc said that the average salary in economy in August 2007 was 2,131 lei, a 90% increase compared with the average salary in 2004. According to him, such a salary was obtained by implementing the law on salary grades in the budgetary sector and by increasing the minimum salary guarantees in the real sector. Expressed in US dollars, the average salary in 2004 was 89 USD, and in August 2007 – 170 USD. The real salary over the first eight months of this year rose by 9%. Sergiu Sainciuc said that 10% of the salary earners in the country now get a pay of over 300 USD. Among the sectors of the national economy where the average salary is higher than 300 USD are air transportation, post office, telecommunications, financial activities, production of electric and thermal energy, manufacture of tobacco products etc. According to the cited source, about 1 bln lei was planned in the 2008 budget for implementing the next stages of the law on salary grades in the budgetary sector. There will be examined the possibility of increasing the minimum salary per country by recalculating the tariff salary rates. The law on the liberalization of the salary system is now being drafted and will be implemented in the real sector. The law will allow the units with financial autonomy to have maximum independence when fixing the salary. According to Sainciuc, the Government will negotiate a new salary grade for the first qualification category in the non-budgetary sphere with the trade unions and employers so as to further increase the minimum state salary guarantees and the salary fund in the real sector.