The study presents arguments in support of the need to introduce/increase the minimum wage in the countries at the periphery of the European Union, including Romania. It also analyses the correlation between the increase of the minimum wage and the dynamics of labor productivity in Romania, between the economic competitiveness and the minimum wage, but also between the increase in the minimum wage and the reduction in the poverty/economic deprivation rate. The study concludes that the deep income inequality, the inequitable distribution of the net national income between labor and capital, the asymmetrical dissemination of the benefits of economic growth and the slow social lift are arguments in favor an increase of the minimum wage to a decent level able to boost the economic and social multiplier effects of using this instrument.