SOCOL CRISTIAN| MARINAS MARIUS MINIMUM WAGE AS A PUBLIC POLICY INSTRUMENT – PROS AND CONS Now, we can analyze what happened in Romania from 1990 to May 2016 or, more interestingly, we can see the evolution of the share of the minimum in the average wage over a longer period, specifically, from 1949 to May 2016(1949 being the year when the minimum wage was introduced in Romania (Figure 9). Figure 9. Evolution of gross minimum wage share in the gross monthly earnings(1949-May 2016) 80 70 67 69 66 64 61 60 58 57 58 58 56 56 55 57 52 51 53 50 54 54 49 51 50 50 52 50 50 47 47 47 47 49 47 46 47 45 45 4545 44 40 42 41 41 37 37 34 30 20 37 36 34 33 35 31 2928 3029 30 30 25 25 2627 27 2223 20 20 20 16 18 10 0 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 May 2016 We note that, over the entire 1992-2015 period, the gross minimum wage did not exceed 40% of the gross monthly earnings. The implementation of the neoliberal agenda's model, mostly in the first years of the transition, can be also illustrated by the evolution of this indicator, as the absence of Source: Ministry of Labor, INSSE, 2016 consistent policy to raise the income expanded the inequality and the economic and social polarization. The last 4 years saw a substantial increase in the minimum wage, from 30% of the gross average earnings in 2012 to 44% in May 2016. Figure 10. Share of the minimum wage in the average wage in selected countries(2014) 0.60 0.50 0.40 0.32 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.37 0.37 0.38 0.38 0.38 0.39 0.40 0.27 0.30 0.20 0.10 0.00 U Rep SA ublic Czech Spa Es i t n o Rom nia a nia Irle T n u d rk Slo e v y a k ia Latvia nia ece gal h ua Gre rtu Lit Po 0.49 0.50 0.40 0.40 0.40 0.41 0.42 0.43 U Po K l an Hun d gary rael nds ium nia n ce Is erla elg lov e Fra Neth B S Source: own processing of 2016 OECD data 19