Banking system employees earned on average a little more than 2,900 RON in January, with payments marking a slight increase from November levels.
In December, the net average income of bank employees took a leap to almost 3,500 RON, as yearend and holiday bonuses were paid out, show NBR data.
In October, wages had registered a shock decline, shrinking from 3,500 to 2,500 RON, reflecting the introduction of new rules on contributions to social security. Thus, the cap for the calculation of these contributions, of five average gross wages (around 6,000 RON), was eliminated, with the move directly hitting bank employees with high incomes.
Under the circumstances, this January's net gain is smaller than the one registered in June 2007, when employees earned 3,242 RON on average.
However, compared with October levels, gains of the first month of this year show a 17% advance. Wages' upward trend is further sustained by banks' battling over employees.
Bank managers have started complaining in recent years that network expansion has been putting pressure on human resources. Experienced employees became increasingly hard to find, especially as banks have started expanding their networks in small towns, as well.
As a matter of fact, several banks that have not managed to create a broad network, yet, such as OTP or MKB Romexterra, even announced they would shift to developing alternative distribution channels. This happens as operating classical branch networks has come to entail ever higher costs amid rising rents and employee wages.
While bankers announced network expansion may be slowed down this year given the rising costs and the deteriorating business environment that led to rising risks, the branch network continued to expand at a fast pace. In January alone 101 branches were added, with the total number thus getting to 5,582 locations.
The number of bank employees also continued to rise, reaching 65,832 people in January. Of these, 17,892 people are concentrated in central offices, while the rest work in territorial branches.
During last year only, banks boosted their number of employees by almost 11,000 people. The number of new employees was even higher considering expansion included in NBR statistics represents net variation, also reflecting departures from the system.
On the other hand, the rising number of employees also influences the trend of the average gain considering where employees recently drawn within the system have lower wages and the average is driven downward.
Still, the average income in banks is further posting robust growth, so that employees in the system are still the best paid in the economy.
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