Salaries differ the most in Moscow, the Astrakhan region and St. Petersburg, and the least in Tyva, Kalmykia and the Magadan region.
Photo: Alexey BULATOV
Then came news about pay inequality. Analysts from the FinExpertiza audit and consulting network verified that it is decreasing.
First, let’s understand what pay inequality is. This is the name given to the relationship between the average wage level of two equal groups of the lowest and highest 20 percent of workers. Rosstat determines these groups when it conducts research on the distribution of the number of employees of large and medium-sized companies by salaries. All businesses (except small businesses) provide such information starting in April once every two years.
Thus, in 2023, the average salaries of the 20% of the lowest paid workers and the 20% of the most paid differ by 7.7 times: 22.7 thousand rubles versus 173.7 thousand rubles. The same coefficient was recorded in 2019, and in the pandemic year of 2021 it was 7.9. In comparison, in 2011 it was 9.3.
Salaries differ the most in Moscow, the Astrakhan region and St. Petersburg, and the least in Tyva, Kalmykia and the Magadan region.
Analysts attribute the decline in pay inequality this year to a 30% increase in earnings for the lowest-paid fifth of employees, while the increase for the highest-paid fifth was less than 27%.
In terms of industries, the greatest inequality is observed in the field of information and communications (computer science, telecommunications, television and radio, publishing): a difference of 11.4 times. In the field of personal services (repairs, dry cleaning, beauty salons, saunas, etc.) – 11 times, in finance and insurance – 10.5 times.
The minimum wage differential in agriculture is 5.1 times, in energy, 5.3 times, and in mining, 5.6 times.
“Lately we have seen a reduction in the number of people receiving higher salaries and a reduction in the number of people receiving lower salaries,” explains Alexander Safonov, labor market specialist and vice-rector of the Federal Government Financial University. From Russia. – The reason is that the increase in the minimum wage forces employers, with the same amount of salary, to redirect part of the salary towards people who receive salaries equal to or lower than the minimum wage. Another reason is that in the current economic situation, employers are forced to spend money on hiring key workers and specialists. Thus, for these categories of employees the salary increases, but for the highest paid, it does not. We have always had salary differences between regions. This is due to the structure of employment. In agricultural regions, the salary is lower, in industrial regions it is higher. In the Moscow agglomeration there are a large number of organizations related to management, so the difference between salaries will always be greater.
