Software Engineer Salary in Romania: Official Pay Data 2025

What software engineers earn in Romania

Employees in computer programming and IT consultancy (division 62 of the Romanian activity classification CAEN Rev.3) earned an average of 19,445 lei gross a month in 2025, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS). Over 12 months that is 233,340 lei, or about €43,694 a year at the ECB rate of 5.3403 lei per euro on 6 November 2026 (our calculation). Take-home pay averaged 11,622 lei a month after employee contributions and income tax. The figure is an average for the whole industry, so it covers juniors, seniors and managers together, and gross pay includes bonuses and the 13th salary.

The average for all employees in Romania was 8,716 lei gross a month in 2025, so pay in division 62 was 2.23 times the national average (our calculation). The wider IT and telecoms section (section K) averaged 17,094 lei. The monthly survey shows pay still rising in 2026: division 62 averaged 21,930 lei gross in August 2026. Single months swing, from 21,540 lei in January 2026 to 26,342 lei in March, so a full-year average is the safer guide.

Pay by city and gender

Where the work is done matters. In 2025, division 62 averaged 22,472 lei gross a month in Bucharest (13,448 lei net), 21,203 lei in Cluj county, 20,395 lei in Timis county, 17,544 lei in Iasi county and 16,490 lei in Brasov county. Men in the division averaged 20,678 lei and women 17,597 lei. INS does not publish pay for software developers as an occupation (COR 2512), by seniority or by years of experience, so these industry figures are the closest official guide.

How Romania compares in Europe

In Eurostat's Structure of Earnings Survey for 2022, professionals in the information and communication sector in Romania earned a mean of €40,037 a year, 0.70 times the EU average of €57,522. That put Romania below Czechia (€43,077) but above Bulgaria (€30,903), Hungary (€30,147) and Poland (€29,721). Romania had about 207,800 ICT specialists in work in 2025, 2.7% of total employment, against 5.0% across the EU (Eurostat estimates).

What an employer pays on top of salary

In Romania most social contributions are paid by the employee and withheld from gross pay: 25% for pension insurance (CAS) and 10% for health insurance (CASS), under articles 138 and 156 of the Fiscal Code. The employer pays the work insurance contribution (CAM) of 2.25% of gross pay (article 220^3). These rates are the ones in force in 2026 in the Fiscal Code published by ANAF, the tax authority.

For a software engineer on the 2025 average of 233,340 lei a year (€43,694), CAM comes to 5,250 lei, or €983.12, for a total cost of €44,677.29 a year (our calculation, 2026 rate). The employee's own CAS and CASS on that pay come to 81,669 lei a year, which is part of the gross salary, not an extra cost. Not included: the higher pension rates for special or particular working conditions, meal vouchers and other benefits, and any private pension or health insurance.

Romania used to exempt the salaries of employees who create software from income tax. Law 296/2023 limited that exemption to gross monthly pay of up to 10,000 lei. An emergency ordinance of 30 December 2024 (OUG 156/2024) repealed it, and the current Fiscal Code shows the exemption as repealed.

Hiring a software engineer in Romania remotely

We do placement. We source, screen and interview remote software engineers and other professionals across Europe, then deliver a shortlist of 3 vetted candidates within 21 days for a flat $6,500, or your deposit back. Every placement carries a 12-month replacement guarantee. See how placement works.

Prefer to run the search yourself? Post a job for $299, live for 60 days, and reach more than 1,000,000 European remote professionals.

Once you have chosen someone, there are 3 common ways to employ them in Romania:

• Romanian entity: you register a company in Romania, run payroll, withhold the employee's contributions and pay CAM yourself.
• Employer of record (EOR): a third-party provider becomes the legal employer and runs Romanian payroll for a monthly fee. Your company directs the work.
• Contractor: the person invoices you as an independent professional. The relationship has to be genuinely independent, or it can count as employment.

Euro Remote Talent does not employ people on your behalf. We find and shortlist the candidate, and you employ them through the route that fits.

Looking for a role yourself? Browse remote jobs in Romania or see how our Land a Great Remote Job program helps.

How we built these figures

The 2025 figures come from the INS annual labour cost survey, which covered about 26,900 employers of all sizes in 2025. The August 2026 figures come from the INS monthly earnings survey of about 23,200 employers. Both give average (mean) earnings per employee, gross and net, by economic activity, not by occupation, and count part-time staff in proportion to their hours. From these series INS uses the new classification CAEN Rev.3, which places programming and IT consultancy in section K. We converted lei to euros at the ECB reference rate of 5.3403 on 6 November 2026 and multiplied monthly averages by 12 for annual values. The Eurostat comparison is from 2022 and covers all professionals in the information and communication sector, not software engineers alone. Where we multiply or divide, we say so.

More guides

• Hiring in Romania: employer costs and labor laws
• Hire developers in Romania
• Cost of living in Romania
• Minimum wage in Romania
• Software engineer salaries in Europe, compared by country
• Remote engineering jobs open to people in Europe