Changes to the minimum wage from July 1, 2026: How much do employees earn, what costs will employers have and what is the stake of 300 lei or 200 lei without taxes

The increase of the minimum gross salary to 4,325 lei, with the reduction from 300 lei to 200 lei of the non-taxable amount, from July 1, 2026, will mean a net salary of 2,699 lei, so an increase of 125 lei, while the costs for the employer will increase by 284 lei, accounting expert Cosmin Dumitrașcu explained to HotNews.ro.

“Employees choose with very little, employers have to take extra money out of their pockets, and the winner is the state,” he says.

Moreover, IMM Romania requests to keep the non-taxable amount of 300 lei even after July 1, 2026 on the grounds that the minimum net salary would increase by 167 lei.

The government is preparing to approve changes to the gross minimum wage that will affect a large number of employees through an emergency ordinance on Tuesday evening.

Current situation

At the current minimum salary, of 4,050 lei gross, from January 1, 2025, the minimum net salary that an employee received “in hand” is 2,574 lei, with the application of the tax exemption on the amount of 300 lei from the minimum salary.

In order to benefit from this exemption, the maximum level of the gross income from wages and salary equivalents made by the employees concerned must not exceed a ceiling of 4,300 lei. Companies currently bear a full salary cost at the minimum salary of 4,134 lei, according to Startupcafe.ro.

What changes

After the governing coalition initially only announced that the gross minimum wage would increase to 4,325 lei from July 1, the Government has now decided to increase the gross minimum wage to 4,325 lei, with only 200 non-taxable lei, from 1 July 2025.

In order to apply the tax exemption on the amount of 200 lei, the income ceiling from salaries and salary-related income will increase to 4,600 lei from July 1.

Why did the Government make these changes? First of all, we should mention that the measure of increasing the minimum wage to 4,325 lei with the decrease to 200 lei of the non-taxable amount is one of the proposals made at the end of October by the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS), but the trade unionists requested that it apply from January 1, 2026.

The SNB also explained then how hundreds of thousands of employees will be affected if the 300 lei non-taxable minimum wage is kept. According to the BNS, approximately 1.8 million employees are paid 4,050-4,350 lei.

“Maintaining the tax deduction of 300 will additionally affect, from July 1, 2026, more than a quarter of a million workers in the range of 4,326 lei – 4,525 lei as they will have lower net salary income than those paid with the minimum salary of 4,325 lei”, warned the National Bank of Romania on December 18.

What would happen if the non-taxable 300 lei is maintained

HotNews.ro spoke with an accounting expert to see what the calculations are behind the version proposed by the Government for increasing the minimum wage and what would have happened if the non-taxable amount did not decrease to 200 lei from July 1, 2026.

In the scenario proposed by the Government, the minimum net salary from July 1, 2026 would be 2,699 lei. An employee would receive an additional 125 lei to the net salary, while the employer's cost will be 4,418 lei at this minimum salary, according to the calculations made by Cosmin Dumitrașcu, entrepreneur, accountant & founder of ABS Group Romania.

In the hypothetical scenario without reduction (the non-taxable amount remains 300 lei), but with the threshold increasing to 4,600 lei, since the minimum gross salary would be below the ceiling of 4,600 lei, the exemption applies. In this case, the minimum net salary would be 2,741 lei, and the cost for the employer would be 4,416 lei.

The accounting expert also confirmed the warning given by the NBS trade unionists. In the scenario where the gross minimum wage would have increased to 4,325 lei with 300 non-taxable lei and without the ceiling increase to 4,600 lei, then the net minimum wage would have been 2,617 lei, and the costs for the employer would have risen to 4,422 lei.

The SMEs ask to keep the amount of 300 lei non-taxable

On the part of the private sector, IMM Romania requested on Tuesday, before the government meeting, “to keep the non-taxable amount of 300 lei (for which no income tax and mandatory social contributions are due) and after July 1, 2026, when the increase in the gross minimum wage takes place in the country, to ensure an increase in the net income of employees (the reduction of the non-taxable amount is basically a disguised increase in taxation by force work).

The simulation regarding keeping the non-taxable amount of 300 lei even after July 1, 2026 shows that the net salary would be 2,741 lei, compared to 2,574 lei at present, 167 lei higher, says IMM Romania.

The SME Association says nothing about the fact that the government's emergency ordinance links the reduction from 300 lei to 200 non-taxable lei to the increase of the maximum ceiling to 4,600 lei.

If the maximum ceiling remains at 4,300 lei as it is at present, the danger previously signaled by the National Bank of Romania will remain: more than a quarter of a million workers in the 4,326 lei – 4,525 lei range will have lower net salary incomes than those paid with the minimum wage of 4,325 lei.