Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița said the Government will be making effort to increase the salaries of all the public sector employees, noting that a populist mistake is being corrected by raising the salaries of ministers. According to the official, until now the ministers received a salary lower than the secretaries of state and this was an inequity. Since February, all the public sector employees will get salaries higher by 1,300 lei, with the decision advantaging those with lower pays, IPN reports.

Under a decision taken at the end of last year, as from this month the ministers will be paid a gross salary of 19,000 lei to 28,000 lei a month. The Premier said such a decision is justified, primarily because the workload is heavier now that the country obtained the EU candidate status.

“I believe in decent salaries. I will continue to make effort for the salaries in the public sector to be raised so that labor productivity grows. We will now correct a blunder deriving from the earlier populism when the ministers received lower pays than the secretaries of state and division heads. Ministers’ pays will be included again in the pay grades in accordance with the unified salary scale. But we need to do much more. As we obtained the EU candidate status, the public sector is making a significant effort to adjust to the Community legislation, the European standards. This effort to raise the salaries will definitely continue,” Natalia Gavrilița stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.

Moreover, the Premier said the other public sector employees from February will have their pays raised by 1,300 lei given the inflation rate of over 30%.

“At the start of February, the public sector employees, those from the education sector will see a rise of 1,300 lei in their pays. We continue work to mobilize funds so that we could pay higher salaries. On average, the rise is of 15%, following an 11% rise for all the employees of the public sector last year. This is a 26% rise cumulatively for this year and last year. Evidently, this is not enough. The decision to increase the salaries for everyone equally abides by the practices of the European countries that decided that the percentage rise in a crisis year, when inflation affects the most vulnerable ones, will be higher for those with low pays,” stated Premier Gavrilița.

As of January 1, 2023, the minimum salary for a full working program of 169 hours a month is 4,000 lei. Also, this year the pensions will be indexed by 14%.