It should be remembered that a new bill on the employment of the population is being prepared for second reading, in which great emphasis will be placed on the working conditions of the self-employed population. As Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova pointed out at a recent enlarged college of the Ministry of Labor, the bill needs to be passed before the end of this year. One of the most controversial points is whether it is necessary to raise the unemployment benefit to the level of the minimum wage.
The deputies propose to equate the maximum amount of the unemployment benefit to the minimum wage in the first three months of contribution and to half the minimum wage in the following three months.
At the same time, the Ministry of Labour, according to RBC, did not agree with the need for these changes. The department advised adjusting the provisions of the law so that “the size of the maximum and minimum unemployment benefits for citizens would not be established by a legislative act.” The Ministry of Labor proposed to define “a subject that will be endowed with the corresponding powers.”
“Today, the upper limit of unemployment benefits is determined by the government’s decision. At the same time, the unemployed are credited with 75% of the average earnings at the last place of work in the first three months and 60% in the first three months. the next three months, but not more than the maximum benefit. This is more than 12 thousand rubles. The problem, however, is that today the maximum amount of unemployment benefits is below the minimum wage, which has been indexed repeatedly over the last year and a half. Thus, the requirements to raise unemployment benefits to the minimum wage means the need for additional spending, which can be burdensome in the face of a budget deficit,” says Zubets. On the other hand, recalls the expert, unemployment is now at its lowest levels, which had not been seen in all of post-Soviet history. “This makes it possible to increase benefits up to the minimum wage, taking into account the reduction in the number of those who receive them. Therefore, the State Duma’s proposal can be considered quite reasonable. Keeping benefits at a level below the minimum wage will help increase the number of poor by 2 times by 2030. So the government will obviously have to meet the needs of parliamentarians,” Zubets added.
