ANALYSIS The new salary law - order in the budget chaos. For public employees, "equity" mainly means cuts and compensations.

The government proposes a complete rewrite of the way over 1.2 million employees in the public system are paid, from doctors and teachers to military personnel, police officers, and civil servants. The new law caps bonuses, introduces a unique salary grid, and limits the ratio between the lowest and highest salary, in the name of transparency and performance. However, unions speak of "salaries cut by another method," warning that for entire segments, incomes are decreasing and accusing that the reform is being carried out without a proper evaluation of the actual work in hospitals, schools, or ministries.

The framework of the new law: reference value, ratio 1:8, capped bonuses

The draft law establishes a unique salary system for all personnel paid from the consolidated general budget: base salaries, wages, and allowances will be calculated by multiplying coefficients with a reference value set annually by the budget law. Upon coming into force, the reference value is estimated at 4,325 lei, and the coefficients are detailed by functions and professional levels in the annexes of the draft.

A central element is limiting the ratio between the lowest and highest salary to 1:8, compared to 1:12 in the current system, which means compressing the differences between the top of the hierarchy and the base of the budgetary pyramid. All salary rights will be granted exclusively based on this law, any bonus or premium established by other normative acts becoming null – a major step away from the current regime, where multiple laws and decisions allow the accumulation of benefits.

Regarding bonuses, the draft imposes a cap of a maximum of 20% of the salary fund of each institution, compared to approximately 30% currently, with exceptions for night work and overtime. Bonuses and premiums cannot exceed, at the individual level, 30% of the base salary and are reserved for a limited percentage of employees, in the logic of "performance rewards," not generalized distribution.

The new law is set to come into force on July 1, 2027, and applies to all categories of budget employees, including local administration, where a unique salary grid is provided based on the size of the locality. The Ministry of Labor estimates a maximum impact of 7.3% of GDP for the wage bill, equivalent to 12.1 billion lei, after negotiations that reduced the initial demands of unions and public institutions.

Medical staff: compressed salaries, cut bonuses, street protests

For the healthcare system, the draft reorganizes salaries starting from the function grids – doctors, nurses, auxiliary staff – and includes in the base salary part of the bonuses that are currently given separately. The declared idea is to reduce discrepancies between hospitals and specialties, but in practice, many categories lose the advantage of bonuses for dangerous, harmful, or extremely stressful conditions, which are no longer found in the same form.

Health unions have already taken to the streets and are demanding the withdrawal of the draft, accusing that for "approximately 60%" of employees, total incomes are decreasing, even if "temporary compensatory sums" appear. Union leaders complain that these compensations are not guaranteed over time and may disappear as the grid is fully applied, leaving medical staff with net salaries lower than currently.

Dissatisfaction is concentric: the reduction of bonuses for heavy-duty sections (ICU, oncology, emergency), the unclear performance criteria for bonuses, but also the fact that the differences in responsibility between various specialties are not sufficiently reflected in the coefficients of the new grid. Unions are demanding, in counterpoint, a recalculation of the reference values for doctors and nurses, the maintenance of special condition bonuses at current levels, and a predictable formula for compensating any potential income losses.

Military and police: order in salaries, but the risk of "demotivating the troops"

For military personnel, the draft establishes a system of coefficients for ranks and functions, with function salaries being calculated similarly to civilian salaries, by referencing the same reference value. Some bonuses – for missions in theaters of operations, special conditions, state secret – are maintained, but their inclusion in the 20% cap of the salary fund at the institutional level limits the growth margin.

In the case of police officers, the law reorganizes ranks and introduces a clear hierarchy between operational and office functions, with differentiated coefficients. Bonuses for overtime, night work, and operational activity are maintained, but in the new formula, certain fixed bonuses that were considered the "hidden part" of incomes – for example, bonuses for dangerous conditions in fixed amounts – disappear or are reduced.

Trade unions in public order criticize the capping of bonuses and complain that the income of frontline police officers no longer reflects real risks, especially in the context where the 1:8 ratio compresses differences but does not bring substantial benefits at the base. Dissatisfaction also includes the fear that performance bonuses will be distributed clientelistically, based on political or internal loyalty criteria, not on measurable results in the field.

Teachers: advantaged beginners, cut bonuses, direction of "performance" with many gray areas

In education, the new law brings significant increases for beginner teachers and for the first levels of seniority, in the logic of reducing the exodus from the system. One example cited in the debate shows that the gross salary of a beginner teacher would increase, in 2027, from approximately 6,700 lei to 7,700 lei, an average increase of about 17%.

In contrast, the draft hits the traditional bonuses of the teaching body: the 10% class teacher bonus disappears, the "neuropsychic wear" bonus of 10% is eliminated, and the bonus for special education (15%) is repealed. The disability bonus is transformed into an integrated component of the base salary formula, and the bonus for isolated areas and rural environments is reduced from 20% to 15%.

Education unions speak of "a zero-sum game": an increase in the base salary and in coefficients, but a drastic reduction in bonuses, especially for staff with additional teaching responsibilities or who work in difficult environments. Specific grievances include: the disappearance of the class teacher bonus, considered essential for coordinating with students and parents, the loss of compensations for special education, and the reduction of the rural bonus, in a context where attracting teachers to disadvantaged areas is already problematic.

As a novelty, the draft introduces performance bonuses of up to one-fifth of the base salary for teachers, alongside a similar mechanism for ANAF employees, but the criteria are to be established by secondary norms, which unions consider "a political key" that can be used arbitrarily.

Public servants and administration: unique grid, greater transparency, but "subsidized" bonuses

For public servants, especially those in central and local administration, the draft introduces clear salary grades and a unique grid based on the size of the locality, in an attempt to limit the large differences between communes, towns, and municipalities. Local public administration is divided into population tiers, with two salary levels for localities, which directly affects municipalities and local councils.

Bonuses for dangerous or harmful conditions, currently granted up to approximately 300 lei gross, are eliminated in their current form, while bonuses for preventive financial control (10%) and those for managing European funds (up to 40%) are maintained, with certain adjustments. A new bonus of 15% of the reference value for persons with disabilities appears, along with a performance bonus between 10 and 20%, but all these benefits fall under the general cap of 20% of the salary budget.

Unions in administration warn that many civil servants will lose net income once fixed bonuses disappear and others are included in the base salary, without a sufficient increase in coefficients. Criticism also arises regarding the provision that any benefits established by other normative acts become null: this immediately cuts the possibility of negotiated local compensations in councils or through collective contracts.

What the new system concretely means for budget employees: more order, but also more frustration In its current form, the draft aims to solve three problems of the old law: the huge differences between institutions, the avalanche of bonuses, and the lack of a clear link between performance and income. Limiting the ratio to 1:8, capping bonuses at 20%, and centralizing all salary rights into a single normative act marks a paradigm shift compared to the current salary system.

For employees, however, the x-ray of the new law shows a mixed picture: beginners in the system – especially teachers and some medical staff – benefit from clear increases, but segments with seniority and many bonuses see their incomes flattening. In healthcare, unions are already talking about decreases for the majority of employees, in education the disappearance of the class teacher and wear bonuses is contested, while in politics and defense, dissatisfaction revolves around the risk of demotivating operational personnel.

The government bets that the new system will be easier to explain and control, with public institutions required to periodically send salary data to the Ministry of Labor, non-compliance being subject to sanctions. However, unions are demanding an extension of the public debate, recalculation of coefficients by occupational families, and the introduction of firm guarantees that no employee will lose real income – and not just the guaranteed minimum salary – in the name of budgetary "equities."

Analysis conducted with the support of Perplexity