A higher salary no longer automatically means a better standard of living. Price rises are “eating into” income increases, and for many Romanians the money runs out before the end of the month. At the same time, where you work and the sector you work in can make the difference between an income of 4,000 lei and one three times higher.

Bucharest tops the ranking of the highest salaries, followed by Cluj and Timiș, while IT, the legal sector and the pharmaceutical industry remain the best-paid fields.

The salary map shows a Romania divided between a handful of powerful economic centres and counties where incomes remain far behind. Bucharest is well ahead, with an average net salary of more than 7,000 lei a month. It is followed by Cluj, with approximately 6,600 lei, and Timiș, with just over 6,000 lei. At the other end of the scale is Hunedoara, where the average is only 4,100 lei.

“Bucharest does not pay more for the same work. Bucharest concentrates the best-paid jobs: IT, the corporate sector and management. Competition for talent is even tougher and, in practice, the same employers are competing for the same scarce specialists,” a recruitment manager explained, according to Observator News.

“I have always asked for more, because I have never been satisfied, and I was told, ‘It can’t be done, this is the budget,’ so I have always had to accept it. Given the experience I have in the field, I would clearly deserve more,” an employee said.

How much the colleague in the same position earns may no longer be such an easy subject to keep secret. The new European rules on pay transparency aim to bring unjustified differences in remuneration to light and oblige companies to explain more clearly how they set salaries.

For employers, the change means a more careful analysis of pay scales and the criteria used for pay rises. “Most companies urgently need to start auditing their internal pay in order to identify gender pay differences. They must not exceed 5% at role-category level. They also need to establish objective criteria for salary increases,” the recruitment manager added.

Employees believe that greater transparency would allow them to find out whether their work is being fairly remunerated. “I think it’s a good idea for transparency, because I’ve seen various companies where there is a very large salary difference for the same position,” an employee said.

“Some colleagues work more or less, and perhaps you want to know whether the work you do is actually being properly compensated,” another employee said.

Transparency could, however, also change the way companies negotiate salaries. Experts warn that, in addition to correcting certain pay differences, the new rules could put pressure on employers’ budgets and could affect future pay rises or even the incomes of certain categories of employees.