According to an analysis by Smartree, one of the leading HR outsourcing companies in Romania, the country has a gender pay gap of 5%—significantly below the European Union average. However, age remains a major discriminatory factor in the local recruitment process, with only 40% of employees being over 55, compared to 55% across the EU.
Although companies in recent years have gradually implemented organizational policies to eliminate pay disparities, significant gaps still exist. While the EU’s average gender pay gap is 16.3%, Romania’s stands at only 5%. “We observe that more and more employers in Romania are objective about pay differences, focusing on professionalism and ethical principles. This trend is further supported by the new generation of employees, who negotiate their work contracts based on different principles than their predecessors. As a result, pay gaps tend to be smaller or almost non-existent among those under 35 or newly entering the workforce,” said Raluca Penes, HR Coordinator at Smartree.
On the other hand, Smartree’s data shows that Romania is one of the few EU countries where the female employment rate has slightly decreased since the 2000s, stabilizing at around 58%, compared to a rising male employment rate of 75% over the past five years. Across the EU, the gender employment gap has narrowed due to the increasing number of jobs occupied by women. Despite women becoming more visible professionally—from entrepreneurship to top management in large corporations—men are still promoted more frequently than women and, as a result, are better paid. In the EU, less than 6% of CEOs are women. One of the sectors where women are least represented in leadership roles, with a considerable bias in favor of men, is politics.
Age: A Discriminatory Criterion in Recruitment
Locally, age is one of the top criteria for exclusion in the recruitment process, with only 40% of Romanian employees over 55, significantly lower than the EU average of 55%. This indicates a persistent reluctance among companies to hire older individuals. “There are still subjective employers locally who incorporate discriminatory elements into the recruitment process, such as age, certain disabilities, ethnicity, and in some parts of the country, even nationality. As a result, some companies outright reject candidates over a certain age without offering them the chance for at least one interview. On the other hand, elements such as sexual orientation or race are not yet targets of discrimination in the Romanian labor market. Medium- and long-term estimates regarding Romania’s aging and declining population will likely compel companies operating locally to focus on certain categories that are currently disadvantaged,” Raluca Penes, HR Coordinator at Smartree, noted.
The analysis by Smartree is based on official data published by Eurostat.