SOCOL CRISTIAN| MARINAS MARIUS MINIMUM WAGE AS A PUBLIC POLICY INSTRUMENT – PROS AND CONS The analysis of the correlation between the minimum wage and the minimum consumer basket for a household with 2 minimum wages and 2 child benefits shows that the income of these families covered neither the costs of decent living(in 2015, the ratio of income to the minimum decent living costs was 76.6%) nor the minimum subsistence costs(in 2015, the ratio of income to the minimum subsistence costs was 92.2%) in any of the years of the period from 2001 to 2015 considered(for details, see Table 2). Table 2. Ratio of the income of households with 2 minimum wages and 2 child benefits to the minimum subsistence and minimum decent living costs(2001-2015) 100 90 92.2 80 75.1 76.6 70 70.0 65.8 68.9 60.9 60 56.8 58.2 61.0 64.2 55.5 62.4 50 46. 0 51.8 54.6 57.2 40 38.9 51.3 47.3 45.2 47.4 49.9 54.4 46.1 40.1 36.3 43.0 30 33.3 20 27.5 10 netradus Pondere 2 salarii minime ș i 2 alocații copii/ Minimul decent de trai Pondere venit 2 salarii minime ș i 2 alocații copii/ Minimul de subzistență 0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Source: For 2001-2011, estimates by Mihăilescu(2012); for 2012-2015, own estimates based on extrapolation of the ICCV method The households with 2 minimum wages and one child benefit also failed to fully cover their minimum subsistence costs(a maximum ratio of 95.8% in 2015) or the minimum decent living costs(a maximum ratio of 91.4% in 2015) over the entire 2001-2015 period(Table 3). Table 3. Ratio of the income of households with 2 minimum wages and 1 child benefit to the minimum subsistence and minimum decent living costs(2001-2015) 120 100 95.8 netradus 80.1 81.0 91.4 80 70.1 74.5 76.8 72.3 63.9 67.0 70.5 63.3 63.3 66.0 Pondere 2 salarii 60 57.7 62.2 58.9 minime ș i o alocați e 50. 2 42.5 54.5 52.0 54.8 57.8 48.9 52.6 52.6 copi l/ Minimul decent de trai 40 45.2 40.8 36.4 30.0 Pondere venit 2 salarii 20 minime ș i o alocați e copi l/ Minimul 0 de subzistență 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Source: For 2001-2011, estimates by Mih ă ilescu(2012); for 2012-2015, own estimates based on extrapolation of the ICCV method The households with 2 minimum wages managed to cover, starting 2013, the minimum subsistence costs(a ratio of 101.6% in 2013 and 118.5% in 2015) and the minimum decent living costs only in 2015(a ratio of 112.9%). The rest of the period, neither the minimum decent living costs nor the minimum subsistence costs were exceeded by the income of these households.(For details, see Table 4.) 30