Social security contributions, to drop to 45.5% next year

The level of social security contributions will be cut by two percentage points next year, while the budgetary surplus is still flat at over 1% of GDP after the first seven months of this year, according to Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu. Cumulated quotas for employees and employers were reduced by two percentage points, to 47.5%, at the beginning of this year. Social security contributions have gradually shrunk in recent years in the context where many employers state smaller salaries than the real ones in order to avoid paying higher contributions. Thus, while in 2000 social security contributions stood at 61%, in 2003 these fell to 52%. At present, employers pay 30.5% of the gross salary fund as social security contributions, of which 20.5% go to pensions.