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The income tax will drop from 16 to 10 percent, but at the same time social security taxes will increase from 16.5 percent to 35 percent, president of the 'Cartel Alfa' National Trade Union Confederation Bogdan Hossu said on Tuesday, upon leaving the meeting of the Tripartite National Council, according agerpres.ro.
"The wage won't be cut, because according to the law in force, we are talking about a gross wage. The trouble is that following the transfer, the gross wage stays the same, but the tax rate charged on the worker increases. It's true, the income tax goes down from 16 percent to 10 percent, but at the same time the social security taxes charged on the worker rise from 16.5 percent to 35 percent. From this point of view, there is a rise in taxation that will reflect not in the gross wage amount, but in the net wage the worker takes home. The employers have not firmly pledged growth, the government relies only on a promise and the good intentions about that, but we are talking about 3 million, not the employees who collect today the minimum national wage and who will see an increase of 97 lei in net, we are not talking about the public sector, which is in for a 25 percent increase, which actually means a net increase of about 4 percent, but we are talking about the rest of Romania's workers who will be affected," Hossu explained.
He added that the employers' side has approved all government measures.
"At the National Tripartite Council, the employers' side has rather pompously approved all the governmental measures. The issue raised by the unions, on their part, is that we obviously do not oppose the increase of the minimum national wage, but we want it clearly stated that the minimum guaranteed wage is the basic wage with no other bonuses or additions, as it was this year," Hossu said.
The union leader also talked about the tax reform project, stating that it is riddled with serious deficiencies and the government "doesn't intend to issue a circular requiring all employers in the country to raise wages."
Last but not least, Hossu also showed that several categories will no longer pay the 10 percent health security contribution and the list of subsidized medicines will grow shorter, as will the set of free services.
