At the tripartite round table organised on 7 October by the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (CNSM) in cooperation with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the occasion of the World Day for Decent Work, Veaceslav Ionita, economist from the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS) “Viitorul”, presented the analytical note on the adjustment of minimum wages in Moldova to EU standards, prepared at the request of the CNSM.

The analytical note contains a number of data on the adjustment of the minimum wage in the Republic of Moldova to the policy of the European Union and the expectations of the population, wage incomes and the development of the minimum wage in the Republic of Moldova, how much should be the wage of an employee in the Republic of Moldova so that he/she does not have to go abroad, indicators of demographic processes, labour migration, how low remuneration influences the possibility of physical and mental recovery of workers, and other relevant information.

According to the information presented by the expert, more than 30% of the respondents to an opinion poll believe that the salary of an employee in the Republic of Moldova should be between 15,000 and 20,000 lei in order to avoid having to go abroad. At the same time, when asked how much money a person needs per month to be happy, the national average is more than 16,000 lei, while the expectations of respondents aged between 30 and 44 are more than 20,000 lei.

According to the expert, in order to achieve the goals of bringing the minimum wage in line with EU standards by 2030, it will be necessary to set the minimum wage in 2025 at the level of 6,200 lei, which will represent 38.0% of the average wage in the economy. The additional financial resources for the adjustment of the minimum wage for 2025 will amount to 290 million lei, or 0.2% of the Labour Remuneration Fund.

The expert noted that the forecast for the adjustment of the minimum wage in the Republic of Moldova, so that by 2030 it will be 50% of the average wage in the economy, should provide for a gradual increase in the ratio between the minimum wage and the average wage, in the first period by 3 p.p. per year and in the final phase by 2 p.p. per year. In order to protect low-income earners, an additional mechanism will be introduced, according to which the increase in the minimum wage will not be lower than the inflation rate of the previous year.

Analytical note “Minimum wage in Moldova. How to bring Moldova’s policy in line with EU standards” is available here.

As a reminder, the National Trade Union Confederation of the Republic of Moldova and the National Confederation of Employers of the Republic of Moldova proposed at the meeting of the National Commission for Consultation and Collective Bargaining on 13 August 2025 to set the minimum wage at the level of 6000 lei as of 1 January 2025 in order to ensure a constant and balanced increase of the minimum wage in the coming years and to ensure the implementation of the provisions of the European Union Directive 2022/2041.

Trade unions and employers noted that the current minimum wage of 5,000 lei provides only about 70% of the subsistence minimum for a worker and a minor child, and that the national economy still faces challenges in retaining and attracting labour.