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Game · prices and wages in Romania, 1985 and 2025

What did it cost in 1985?

In 1985, in Nicolae Ceaușescu's communist Romania (he ruled until 1989), a kilo of sugar cost 14 lei (the leu, plural lei, is Romania's currency). That was 50 minutes of work for someone on the average net wage. In 2025, at shop prices, it cost 8 minutes. A 500-gram pack of coffee took 6 hours of work in 1985 and 1 hour 35 minutes in 2025. Guess the work time for other goods and see where your sense of old money goes wrong.

Newspaper clipping from 1982: the heading of the annex, “Retail prices of the main agricultural and food products, home-made and imported”, and the rows for sugar: granulated sugar, 14.00 lei a kilo; sugar cubes, 15.00 lei.
The official price list in force from 15 February 1982, printed that same day in Scînteia Tineretului, the communist youth daily [3]. Granulated sugar: 14 lei a kilo. In October 1985 Romania reported the same price to the International Labour Organization [2].

Every price, in work time#

Every price with a source, shown as work time at that year's average net wage. Under each time is the price, in lei of that year. The 1985 prices are those reported for Romania to the International Labour Organization in its October 1985 inquiry [2]; the notes under the table say, for each, whether the same price is on the official 1982 list [3]. The 2025 prices are shop prices, not a national average.

Item19852025
Sugar1 kg of white sugar50 minutes14 lei[2][3]8 minutes4.14 lei[9]3.59 lei – 4.70 lei
An eggOne fresh hen's egg; for 1985, a twelfth of the price of a dozen5 minutes1.40 lei[2][3]2 minutes0.80 lei[8]
Cooking oil1 litre of sunflower oil1 hour 1 minute17 lei[2]14 minutes7.55 lei[9]6.79 lei – 8.30 lei
Rice1 kg of long-grain rice; in 2025, rice on the shelf1 hour 1 minute17 lei[2]13 minutes6.60 lei[9]5.89 lei – 7.30 lei
Pork1 kg of pork on the bone; in 2025, bone-in pork chop2 hours 12 minutes37 lei[2][3]50 minutes26.29 lei[10]19.99 lei – 32.59 lei
CoffeeA 500 g pack of coffee6 hours105 lei[2]1 hour 35 minutes49.49 lei[11]43.99 lei – 54.99 lei
Oranges1 kg of oranges1 hour 4 minutes18 lei[2]11 minutes5.99 lei[11]4.99 lei – 6.99 lei
BeerA 0.33 litre bottle of beer10 minutes2.67 lei[2]—
Butter250 g of butter49 minutes13.75 lei[2]—
Beef1 kg of beef on the bone2 hours 33 minutes43 lei[2][3]—
Potatoes1 kg of potatoes7 minutes1.96 lei[2]4 minutes2.19 lei[12]1.99 lei – 2.39 lei
Apples1 kg of apples7 minutes1.98 lei[2]12 minutes6.49 lei[12]5.49 lei – 7.49 lei
Margarine250 g of margarine22 minutes6.25 lei[2][3]—

A dash means no dated 2025 price with a source was used; those items are played with their 1985 price only.

  • Sugar, 1985. Price reported to the International Labour Organization for October 1985 [2]. Granulated sugar has the same price, 14 lei a kilo, on the official list of 15 February 1982 [3].
  • An egg, 1985. A dozen cost 16.80 lei in October 1985 [2], or 1.40 lei an egg. The official 1982 list gives 1.40 lei for a small egg between 31 March and 31 October and 1.70 lei in winter [3].
  • Cooking oil, 1985. ILO only [2]: 17 lei a litre. The official 1982 list gives 18 lei for top-grade sunflower oil and 17.50 lei for oil blended with soya [3]; the documents found do not explain the gap to 1985.
  • Rice, 1985. ILO only [2], for long-grain rice. The official 1982 list gives 15 lei for another grade, milled type S.1 rice [3].
  • Pork, 1985. ILO [2]: pork on the bone. The same figure, 37 lei a kilo, is on the 1982 list for top-grade pork (neck, rib chop, leg and shoulder), prepacked [3]; the list does not say whether it is on the bone.
  • Beef, 1985. ILO [2]: beef on the bone. The same figure, 43 lei a kilo, is on the 1982 list for top-grade beef (sirloin, topside, leg and shoulder), prepacked [3]; the list does not say whether it is on the bone.
  • Coffee, 1985. ILO only [2]: a 500 g pack. Not looked up on the 1982 list.
  • Oranges, 1985. ILO only [2]. Not looked up on the 1982 list; art. 3 of the decree leaves the price of fruit to the county people's councils [3], and the ILO does not say which town the figure is for.
  • Beer, 1985. ILO only [2]: a 0.33 l bottle. Not looked up on the 1982 list.
  • Butter, 1985. ILO only [2]: 250 g. Not looked up on the 1982 list.
  • Potatoes, 1985. ILO only [2]. Under art. 3 of the 1982 decree the county people's councils set the price of potatoes [3]; the ILO does not say which town the figure is for.
  • Apples, 1985. ILO only [2]. Under art. 3 of the 1982 decree the county people's councils set the price of fruit [3]; the ILO does not say which town the figure is for.
  • Margarine, 1985. ILO [2]: a 250 g pack. The same price, 6.25 lei, is on the 1982 list for MARGA vegetable margarine in a 250 g pack [3].
  • An egg, 2025. An egg from caged hens (code 3), the cheapest class, in a supermarket, April 2025: 24 lei for a tray of 30 [8].
  • Sugar, 2025. Between 3.59 and 4.70 lei: the lowest price in each of nine supermarket chains in Bucharest on 13 October 2025 [9]. The midpoint is used.
  • Cooking oil, 2025. Between 6.79 and 8.30 lei: the lowest price in each of nine supermarket chains in Bucharest on 13 October 2025 [9]. The midpoint is used.
  • Rice, 2025. Between 5.89 and 7.30 lei: the lowest price in each of nine supermarket chains in Bucharest on 13 October 2025 [9]. The midpoint is used.
  • Pork, 2025. Between 19.99 lei (a weekly offer) and 32.59 lei for bone-in pork chop, in three shops on 10 December 2025 [10]. The midpoint is used.
  • Coffee, 2025. Julius Meinl Prasident ground coffee, 500 g: 54.99 lei the usual price and 43.99 lei in the opening offer of a Kaufland store in Bucharest, December 2025 [11]. The midpoint is used.
  • Oranges, 2025. 6.99 lei a kilo the usual price and 4.99 lei in the same store's opening offer, December 2025 [11]. The midpoint is used.
  • Potatoes, 2025. Lidl 1.99 lei and Mega Image 2.39 lei a kilo, in Ploiești, September 2025 [12]. The midpoint is used.
  • Apples, 2025. Kaufland 5.49 lei and Lidl 7.49 lei a kilo, in Ploiești, September 2025 [12]. The midpoint is used. Apples are the only item in the game that takes more work time in 2025 than in 1985, at either end of the range.

The price on the list and the empty shelf#

A price tells you what you paid at the till, not whether the goods were on the shelf. In 1985 the prices of the main foods on the official list had been fixed by decree [3], but that did not mean the food was there to buy.

From 9 October 1981, Decree no. 306 made it a criminal offence of speculation, punishable by six months to five years in prison, to buy cooking oil, sugar, flour, cornmeal, rice or coffee beyond a family's needs for one month [4]. Sugar and oil could be sold only to people who lived or worked in the town, and shops could sell these foods only in the amounts set by the local council [4].

According to the OECD, sugar and cooking oil went on ration cards (the cartelă) in the early 1980s, and by 1989 rationing had spread to meat, cheese, butter and eggs. A town dweller could buy one litre of oil, one and a half kilos of sugar and one kilo of meat a month; in villages the allowances were much lower [5]. The report does not say which year these allowances applied.

So the work time in the game assumes the goods could be found at the reported price. The hours lost in queues and the prices at the peasant market or under the counter are on no official list, and no checkable source was found for them in 1985, so they are left out of the game. In 2025 it is the other way round: the shelves are full, but prices differ from shop to shop.

Questions#

How much did a kilo of sugar cost in Romania in 1985?

14 lei, the price reported for October 1985 and the same as on the official 1982 list [2, 3]. At the average net wage of 2,827 lei a month, that is 50 minutes of work. In October 2025 a kilo of sugar cost between 3.59 lei and 4.70 lei in supermarkets in Bucharest, the capital, or about 8 minutes of work [9].

How much did coffee cost in 1985?

105 lei for a 500-gram pack, or 6 hours of work at the average wage [2]. Coffee was also on the list of foods you were not allowed to buy beyond a month's needs [4]. In December 2025 a 500-gram pack cost between 43.99 lei and 54.99 lei in a Bucharest store, or about 1 hour 35 minutes of work [11].

How much did an egg cost in 1985?

A dozen eggs cost 16.80 lei in October 1985, or 1.40 lei an egg [2], which took 5 minutes of work. The 1982 list had summer and winter prices: 1.40 lei for a small egg in summer, 1.70 lei in winter [3]. In April 2025 a supermarket egg cost about 0.80 lei, or 2 minutes of work [8]. That was the cheapest class, eggs from caged hens; eggs from alternative systems cost over 1 leu each [8].

What about cooking oil and rice?

In October 1985 a litre of sunflower oil and a kilo of long-grain rice each cost 17 lei, or 1 hour 1 minute of work [2]. In 2025 the midpoint of shop prices comes to 14 minutes of work for oil and 13 minutes for rice [9].

How much did pork cost in 1985?

37 lei a kilo for pork on the bone, or 2 hours 12 minutes of work [2]. In December 2025 bone-in pork chop cost between 19.99 lei and 32.59 lei; the midpoint comes to 50 minutes [10].

Has anything become dearer in work time?

Of the items with both a 1985 and a 2025 price, only apples. A kilo cost 1.98 lei in 1985, or 7 minutes of work [2]; in September 2025 it cost between 5.49 lei and 7.49 lei, or about 12 minutes [12]. The 1985 price is the one reported to the International Labour Organization [2]; how often apples could be found at that price is not known from the sources found.

What did a Romanian earn in 1985?

Average net earnings were 2,827 lei a month, according to the series of the National Institute of Statistics [1]. In 2025 they reached 5,266 lei, the annual average published by the institute [6, 7].

How much did the metro cost in 1989 and in 2025?

The stenogram of the Executive Political Committee meeting of 19 May 1989 speaks of “the 2 lei price on the metro”, set by decree, and the transport minister says: “We have both 2 lei and 1 leu” [13]. It does not show which ticket cost which. At the 1989 average net wage of 3,063 lei a month [1], 2 lei is 7 minutes of work and 1 leu is 3 minutes. In 2025 a trip cost 5 lei [14], or 10 minutes at the 2025 wage; from 1 May 2026 it costs 7 lei [14]. The metro is not in the game because no sourced 1985 fare was found.

Could you actually buy things at the listed price?

Not always. From 1981, buying sugar, oil, flour, rice or coffee beyond a month's needs was punishable by prison [4], and sugar and oil were sold on ration cards [5]. The listed price says what something cost when you could find it.

How it is worked out#

Work time is the price divided by the average net monthly earnings of the same year, multiplied by 168 hours, a month of 21 eight-hour days. The same 168-hour month is used for every year so the times can be compared. Money is never converted from one year to another: price and wage are always in lei of the same year, so neither inflation nor the 2005 redenomination of the leu enters the sum. Average earnings, from the annual series of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) [1]:

YearAverage net monthly earnings
19852,827 lei [1]
20255,266 lei [6][7]

The 1985 prices are those reported for Romania in the International Labour Organization's annual inquiry for October 1985, read from the scan of its 1986 publication [2]. The table does not say whether they are fixed or average prices, and names no town. For sugar, eggs, pork, beef and margarine the same figure is on the official list in force from 15 February 1982 [3], a sign the price had not changed in between. The list does not cover everything, though: under art. 3 the county people's councils set the price of potatoes and fruit [3], so for potatoes, apples and oranges the ILO figure is the only source and it is not known which town it is for. For rice and oil the 1982 list gives different prices: for rice it is a different grade; for oil the documents found do not explain the gap [2, 3].

No national average price per item was found for 2025. The game uses the midpoint between the lowest and highest price found: for sugar, oil and rice, the lowest price in each of nine supermarket chains in Bucharest on 13 October 2025 [9]; for pork, three shops on 10 December 2025 [10]; for coffee and oranges, the usual and the offer price in one Bucharest store in December 2025 [11]; for potatoes and apples, two shops in Ploiești, a city north of Bucharest, in September 2025 [12]; for eggs, one supermarket price from April 2025 [8]. The 2025 figures are lowest-in-chain or offer prices, not an average, and the 1985 figures are described neither as average nor as fixed: the two series do not measure quite the same thing. At either end of the range, though, every one of these items takes less work time in 2025 than in 1985, except apples, which take more. No 2025 price was used for beer, butter, beef and margarine, so they appear in the game with their 1985 price only.

The 2025 wage is the annual average of net earnings, published by the National Institute of Statistics in September 2026 and quoted by the press [6, 7]; it is the same indicator as in the 1985 series [1], whose published part reaches 2023. The 2025 prices come from April, September, October and December, and monthly earnings move through the year, above all with bonuses, so the 2025 work times are approximate.

The average wage is nobody's wage in particular. The score only measures how close you came to the work time: each round gives up to 100 points, fewer the further your guess is from the answer, down to zero when you were 16 times too high or too low.

Sources#

The level shows how close a source is to the original record: 1, an official or primary document; 2, an institutional report; 3, press citing a named or dated source. Titles are given as published.

  1. 1Câștiguri salariale din 1938 - serie anuală, Institutul Național de Statistică (updated 20 June 2025). level 1 The official series of average net monthly earnings, in lei of each year. Gross earnings cannot be compared across 2017 and 2018 because contributions moved to the employee; the net series can.
  2. 2Bulletin of Labour Statistics: October Inquiry Results, 1984 and 1985. Retail prices of selected food items, October 1985, Biroul Internațional al Muncii (ILO), Geneva, pp. 240–241 și 258 (1986). level 1 The International Labour Organization's annual October inquiry, giving the retail prices reported for Romania, with no city named and no statement whether they are fixed or average prices. The oil is sunflower oil (appendix II).
  3. 3Decret privind majorarea și îmbunătățirea corelării, pe principii economice, a prețurilor cu amănuntul la produsele agroalimentare. Anexa nr. 1, Consiliul de Stat al RSR (Decretul nr. 45/1982), tipărit în Scînteia Tineretului nr. 10176, p. 2 (15 February 1982). level 1 The official price list of the main foods, in force from 15 February 1982 (art. 19). Art. 3 leaves the price of vegetables, potatoes and fruit to the county people's councils, and art. 2 leaves other grades to the Ministry of Domestic Trade.
  4. 4Decret nr. 306 din 9 octombrie 1981 privind unele măsuri pentru prevenirea și combaterea unor fapte care afectează buna aprovizionare a populației, Consiliul de Stat al RSR, Buletinul Oficial nr. 77, Portal Legislativ (9 October 1981). level 1 The official text of the decree.
  5. 5Review of Agricultural Policies: Romania, OCDE (Organizația pentru Cooperare și Dezvoltare Economică), p. 147 (2000). level 2 Describes food rationing in the 1980s and the monthly urban allowances. Does not give the year the allowances applied.
  6. 6INS: Salariul mediu net a ajuns la 5.266 de lei în 2025, Ziarul Profit (25 September 2026). level 3 Cites the annual figures of the National Institute of Statistics: average net monthly earnings in 2025, 307 lei above 2024.
  7. 7Salariul mediu net a ajuns la 5.266 lei în 2025, Financiarul (2026). level 3 A second outlet citing the same figure.
  8. 8Cât costă acum ouăle românești direct de la fermă, Playtech (7 April 2025). level 3 Eggs from the industrial system (code 3, caged hens), the cheapest kind: about 80 bani an egg (100 bani make a leu), 24 lei for 30. According to the article, eggs from alternative systems cost over 1 leu each. The price is from April 2025.
  9. 9Cât ne costă alimentele de bază în luna octombrie 2025, InfoCons (prices valid on 13 October 2025). level 3 A consumer-protection association. The lowest price in each of nine supermarket chains in Bucharest; not a national average.
  10. 10Cât costă un kilogram de carne în marile magazine, înainte de Crăciun, BizBrasov (10 December 2025). level 3 Bone-in pork chop: Kaufland 19.99 lei (weekly offer), Selgros 24.05 lei, Auchan 32.59 lei a kilo.
  11. 11Kaufland continuă expansiunea și deschide al 26-lea magazin din București, Kaufland România, comunicat de presă (17 December 2025). level 1 Usual and opening-offer prices, given by the retailer itself.
  12. 12Cât au ajuns produsele de bază în supermarketurile din Ploiești, Observatorul Prahovean (13 September 2025). level 3 Shelf prices in four supermarket chains in Ploiești. The article does not give the day they were noted.
  13. 13Problemele transportului în comun din București, în timpul „Epocii de Aur” (1965-1989), Petre Opriș, Contributors.ro, citând stenograma ședinței Comitetului Politic Executiv al C.C. al P.C.R. din 19 mai 1989 (29 March 2021). level 3 Ceaușescu speaks of the “2 lei price on the metro” set by decree; the transport minister replies “We have both 2 lei and 1 leu”. It does not say which ticket cost which.
  14. 14OFICIAL. Călătoria cu metroul se scumpește de la 1 mai. Noile tarife, în Monitorul Oficial, Economedia (25 April 2026). level 3 A Bucharest metro trip rose from 3 to 5 lei on 1 January 2025 and from 5 to 7 lei on 1 May 2026.