New data published by the Government show major differences between domains in the public sector regarding salary expenses and the share of money allocated to personnel.
The highest expenses per employee are in Defense and public order, while in Education, salaries consume the largest part of the budget. It is worth mentioning an important aspect: the Justice sector does not appear here.
The data was published on an online platform launched by the Executive, which centralizes indicators regarding public institutions and state-owned companies.
Since we are talking about the state's "expense" on an employee, we are referring to gross amounts, not the average net salary of employees in each domain.
In addition, the data is for the year 2024, before the measures to reduce bonuses and expenses in the public sector adopted later by the Bolojan Government in 2025.
In 2024, Romania ended with a budget deficit of 8.65% of GDP and personnel expenses of 164.6 billion lei, equivalent to 9.3% of GDP.
Defense and Health have the highest salary expenses
The graph on "Average expense per employee by field of activity" shows that the highest amounts are recorded in the field of "Defense, public order, and national security," where the average expense reaches 13,550 lei.
In second place is Health, with an average expense of 12,003 lei per employee.
At the opposite end is Social Assistance, where the average expense is 7,434 lei, the lowest among the analyzed domains.
In Education, the average expense per employee is 9,990 lei, close to the level in Environmental Protection, where the average is 10,127 lei.
The data also show values of 9,906 lei for General Public Services, 9,210 lei in the "Other entities" category, 8,911 lei in Culture, and 8,509 lei for Utilities Public Services.
In Education, salaries represent over 66% of expenses
At the same time, the Government's data also reveal the share of personnel expenses in the total expenses, in each field of activity.
Education is by far the field where salaries have the highest share in the budget, with 66.3% of total expenses.
In second place is the field of "Defense, public order, and national security," where personnel expenses represent 51.5% of the total.
In Culture, the share is 40.9%, and in Health, it is 28.7%.
At the opposite end is Social Assistance, where personnel expenses represent only 4.3% of total expenses.
The data also indicate shares of 12% in Environmental Protection, 11.1% in General Public Services, and 11% in Utilities Public Services.
Where the data can be found
The information appears on an online platform launched by the Government to centralize indicators regarding public institutions and state-owned companies.
According to the official presentation, the data is centralized from multiple administrative sources and displayed in the form of interactive graphs and statistics.
The Executive states that the purpose of the platform is to "increase transparency and public access to relevant information about the public administration and state-owned companies," through a "user-friendly and easy-to-follow" format.