Salary increases for more categories of public sector employees not to be postponed in Moldova

Finance Minister Andrian Gavrilita today said that salary increases for more categories of public sector employees would not be postponed and would be implemented as planned starting from September 1, 2026, once a new salary law is adopted.

“I saw in the press yesterday a piece of news claiming that the salary law would be postponed. This is not true. There was an error in one of the replies, in which colleagues included the official information or existing commitments, which initially provided that the salary law would enter into force on January 1, 2027. Our ambition has remained the same. We are aiming for September 1, 2026. Nothing has changed. We regret that there was this communication problem and that it turned into such big news, without me being asked once more whether the plans had actually changed. They have not changed. We are moving forward as I told you,” the minister said before today’s government meeting.

The official emphasized that the competent institutions were working and assessing what expenditures would be necessary for implementing the new salary law, noting that “roughly a few billion lei would be needed”:

“We are still working on the final parameters. I think that, as early as next week, we will be able to discuss more precisely the level of ambition. We have the more conservative option and the more optimistic option, depending on how we mobilize resources, how we manage to save, to collect revenues. Roughly, we are talking about a few billion,” the finance minister said.

Andrian Gavrilita also said that the authorities’ goal was for the salary increases to be carried out based on growing budget revenues, in order to ensure sustainability.

“The objective is not to put pressure on the budget. We need to increase revenues, reduce expenditures and optimize the cost of financing. We do not want to raise salaries on debt. Therefore, within the budgetary and fiscal policy, we have the responsibility to cover these necessary expenditures, because people must have decent incomes for professional work, especially along our European path,” Andrian Gavrilita concluded.

The authorities have previously announced that public sector employees could benefit from increased salaries starting in September, this year, once the new salary law enters into force. Among the categories targeted first, there are teachers and physicians.