The amendment of the 2023 state budget comes with considerable pay raises for representatives of the central public administration. After it is raised, the salary of a minister will be 50,000 lei, said Minister of Finance Veronica Sirețeanu. According to her, the raises are necessary in order to keep professionals in public posts. The pays for the other categories of public sector employees will be raised only if there is economic growth, IPN reports.

Under the amendment to the state budget law, the reference value used when calculating the salary of deputy premiers, ministers, the Government’s secretary general and the governmental agent as from June 1, 2023 will be 3,600. This means that the ministers’ pay will rise to 50,000 lei. The minister said the move is aimed at keeping professionals in the system as, because the salaries are small, these choose to work in the private sector.

“If we speak about the state funds, which are collected from taxes, those who manage these millions should be motivated to do their job and not to give up what they do. A doctor or a teacher does not manage the resources this way and does not face the same risks and public exposure as a secretary of state or a minister does. The pay raise from the start of this year indeed applied to ministers only. Now we do not speak only about ministers’ salaries. The moves are part of a whole complex. In fact, we want to form competition teams at ministerial level. It comes to the whole staff of a ministry, from specialists to the minister. This way we strengthen the policy part,” Veronica Sirețeanu stated in the program “Résumé with Ileana Pîrgaru” on RliveTV TV channel.

According to the official, 100 million lei will be allocated from the state budget at the initial stage for raising the pays of 1,300 representatives of the central public administration. The Government plans to also raise the salaries of other categories of public sector employees, but only if there is economic growth.

“If the economy develops and generates more resources based on the taxes paid by businesses, this money will surely be distributed to more people as soon as possible. We will see how things develop. If the economy enters stagnation as the economies all over the world do or if surplus value is not generated in the economy, we will not borrow money to pay salaries. The mechanism of lending for salaries does not work,” said the minister of finance.

This is the second pay raise for ministers so far this year. On January 1, 2023, the salaries of the Cabinet members grew by 8,000 lei.