As from March, the base pay for the first category of workers in the public medical-sanitary institutions will make up 515 lei, which is a 24.1% increase. The medical staff (regardless of the position they hold) in hospitals, dispensaries, sections, pulmonology rooms, morphopathology sections, personnel directly dealing with the prevention and combating of AIDS, employees working in hazardous conditions will benefit from a 15% rated increase in salary from the base pay for each year of work experience, while the maximum quantum of the rated increase must not exceed 100% of the base pay. Such a decision was approved by the Government according to the provisions of an earlier decision of December 2003, regarding the approval of the regulations on remuneration of labour of the employees from the public medical-sanitary institutions engaged in the compulsory health insurance system. According to the document, the wage for the first qualification category is being recalculated annually, thanks to collective negotiations between the Ministry of Health, National Health Insurance Company (NHIC) and the trade union in the field, resulting from the available means stipulated in the Law on compulsory health insurance funds for the respective year. Expenditures related to the decision’s implementation will be covered by NHIC and from other income sources of the public medical-sanitary institutions. The average wage in the public medical-sanitary institutions for 2006 was of 1124.8 lei, while the country’s average wage is 1700 lei.