According to a study by the European Statistics Office (Eurostat) published on Thursday, Romanians are among the most diligent employees in Europe, ranking second in terms of the number of hours worked per week, but still have some of the lowest salaries in Europe, reports Agerpres.
Romanians, second place in industriousness, tails in wages, archive photo
Eurostat data indicates that, on average, in 2023, the usual duration of the weekly working schedule of people aged between 20 and 64 in the European Union was 36.1 hours. However, there are differences between states not only in terms of the number of hours worked, but also in terms of salaries.
Romanians are, according to this report, among the most hardworking employees in Europe, because the difference between us and the employees in Greece, who are in first place, is insignificant: 39.5 hours of work per week Romanians and 39.8 hours per week Greeks.
Unfortunately, the salaries of Romanians do not reflect this at all, Romania being among the member countries with a minimum salary well below 1000 euros, along with Cyprus, Poland, Portugal, Malta, Lithuania, Greece, Croatia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Hungary , Romania and Bulgaria. National minimum wages ranged from €477/month in Bulgaria to €1,000/month in Cyprus.
“Romania is in a paradoxical situation. Although our employees spend a lot of time at work, wages remain among the lowest in Europe. This raises serious questions about efficiency and quality of life.” said Ligia Pricovi, expert in European studies.
In Romania, from 2024, the value of the minimum gross salary is 3,300 lei/month, i.e. approximately 660 euros/month, below the level of that of Hungary, of 710 euros/month, respectively of those of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, of 750 euros/month each . Practically, we are in the penultimate place, before Bulgaria, with the lowest salary, if we compare ourselves to countries where the minimum income is up to 1000 euros.
If, however, we make a comparison with the Netherlands, where employees work only 32 hours a week, Germany, with 34 hours, or Austria, with 33.5 hours worked weekly, but with minimum wages over 1500 euros, the distance is even greater big.
Returning to the Eurostat report, the highest number of hours worked in a week was recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), Romania (39.5 hours), Poland (39.3 hours) and Bulgaria (39 hours), and the lowest in the Netherlands (32.2 hours), followed by Austria (33.6 hours) and Germany (34 hours).
In 2023, the economic activities in the EU where the longest work week was recorded were: agriculture, forestry and fishing (41.5 hours), mining and extractive activities (39.1 hours) and construction (38.9 hours), and the shortest work week was registered in the activities where the employers are households (26.7 hours), education (31.9 hours), arts, entertainment and recreational activities.
