Three quarters of Romanian companies, responding to the HR Barometer conducted in June by PwC Romania, have adjusted or will adjust salaries with inflation or a percentage between inflation and the initially planned increase, while the rest have decided to maintain the budget of salary increases set in 2021. Thus, the average increase in the total salary budget in 2022 compared to 2021 is 9.4%.
According to the survey, 41% of companies have revised up the budget of salary increases, but not enough to compensate for the loss of income caused by inflation, a quarter have adjusted or will adjust wages with the level of inflation for all employees, and 9% have adjusted with inflation only for certain categories of employees. The average inflation rate to which the responding companies relate when adjusting the budget is on average 8.2%.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the inflation rate reached 14.5% in May, being the highest in the last 19 years in Romania. The most recent inflation forecast of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) for the end of this year is 12.5%.
The largest increases in the total salary budget in 2022 versus 2021 will be operated in the consumer goods / distribution sector, of 13.6%, in financial services (banks, leasing, IFN), of 12.8%, and in the energy sector, of 10.3%, and the lowest in insurance, of 5.6%, and the pharma, of 6.4%. In terms of staff turnover, most companies do not report significant changes in the first half of the year, and 36% plan new hires in the third quarter.
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