Bucharest wages: at least 50% higher than in the provinces

On average, wages in Bucharest are at least 50% higher than in other cities in Romania, and when it comes to management positions the gaps are even greater, explains Camelia Stanculescu, general manager of the local office of Manpower, one of the leading players in the field of personnel leasing.
“These days, it is almost impossible to recruit unskilled workers in Bucharest for the minimum wage (120 euros net or 360 RON, i.e.),” says Stanculescu.
However, wage gaps between Bucharest and the provinces are not as apparent in fields such as IT.
There is a wider gap in the provinces between the minimum wage level and the upper wage level, in comparison with Bucharest. “On average, a Bucharest production sector manager earns 1,000 to 1,500 euros, whilst in the rest of the country, a person in the same position earns 700 to 1,200 euros,” says the general manager of Manpower.
The wage growth rate in developed areas is around 25%, with a higher growth rate registered by companies that initially had below average wage levels, and are now raising their wage policy to the market level.
Whereas, in the ’90s, there were tens of candidates for each position, all of them very good, now companies have to choose from two or three candidates. The situation is not unusual since, as Stanculescu says, the number of investors has increased, while the population has remained the same.
“Under the circumstances, some of the candidates have rather unrealistic expectations. It’s easy to be fresh out of college and say: ‘Within two or three years, I want to be a top manager.’ You should seek to be a good specialist first and then you will definitely get to teach others. A manager is no longer a boss, because coordinating people doesn’t mean leading them,” believes Manpower’s general manager. Under the circumstances, the maturation of the domestic labour market should start with the candidate. “Companies have already taken the first step,” she adds.
Fifteen years ago, recruitment outsourcing was only conducted for middle and top management positions. “This is how recruitment companies emerged at the time, when they were searching for management-level talents,” explains Stanculescu.
At the beginning of the ’90s, the “technological” management stage was left behind and companies began investing in people, from top to bottom. Today, organisations have come to realise that all employment positions are “strategic”.