Why the salary crisis in Russia seems to never end
The government believes that the salary crisis in Russia came to an end. People began to earn more and companies more loyal to their employees. To such conclusion came the Ministry of labor, after reviewing the latest data of Rosstat. But it is one-sided and overly optimistic interpretation. Real wage growth compared to the year 2015 has not happened, bad time for workers and good for businesses continues.
Life is better
The Russians have a new reason for optimism. The country recorded an increase in real wages, enterprises gradually out of the salary crisis. This was stated by the Minister of labour and social protection Maxim Topilin.
“In recent months we have seen a positive trend. According to Rosstat, in may real wages rose by a cent against April and June to 1.4 percent by may,” he said on July 21.
And added that a year ago the situation was much worse: in the first half, real wages fell by 8.8 per cent compared to the same period in 2014. The company find the funds for material incentives for workers, glad the Minister.
Indeed, Rosstat reported this information. What Topilin and saw the exit of the salary crisis and the gradual increase in the welfare of Russians.
According to the labor Ministry, still employers in crisis save on employees, leaving them, however, in their jobs. That is paid less, but did not fire. This, according to the Agency, the current situation differs from the crisis of 2008, when were the mass layoffs.
Legitimate ways to cut the pay not so much. You can, for example, lowering it by agreement of the parties. That is somehow to put pressure on the employee to sign an agreement on the reduction of salary. You can reduce employee labor time and pay in accordance with the extracted clock. There is a very difficult way to execute a salary reduction in connection with a change in the structure and working conditions. But in this case, the company must convincingly prove that to maintain the previous arrangement impossible.
Some employers used the latter method to hide the actual reduction of wage. For example, the salary consisted of salary and bonuses of 30 percent to the salary, and now the ratio of salary and bonuses of 40: 60. And, a bonus award requires a larger number of conditions.
Maxim Topilin happy for the Russians, who began to make more money
Photo: Peter Kovalev / Kommersant
As confirmed by the Tape.<url>” the Ministry of labor, enterprises often revised criteria for the payment of the so-called variable part (bonuses, allowances, bonuses), as well as optimized social package — medical insurance, pay phone and so on.
Apparently, this meant Topilin, speaking about the salary crisis. Now, as noted in the Department, employers are moving away from the manipulation. As a result, according to Rosstat, real wages in June 2016, compared to the same month last year rose 1.4 percent. The average salary made up 38 590 rubles.
Good mood
Despite the cautious optimism the Ministry of labour and the improvement of statistics, money from citizens is still not increased. Real incomes of Russians, that is, the wage minus the obligatory payments, adjusted for inflation, in June 2016 fell by 4.8 percent compared to June of 2015.
These data refer to real disposable income. In addition to wages includes pensions, benefits, income from entrepreneurial activity and certain other types of income. Thus, simultaneously with a slight increase in real wage incomes of other species declined.
Moreover, citizens felt it: according to the monitoring of the Ranepa, the deterioration in its financial position noticed 47 percent of Russians.
The freezing of salaries in the public sector has led to greater unevenness in income distribution, was pointed out in Alfa-Bank. This worsened the performance of retail trade and the General situation in the economy. Public sector wages rose by four to six percent and the inflation rate in 2015 reached 12.9 percent. So real wages of state employees that make up Russia for a quarter of all wage earners fell.
“Rising inequality indicates that Russia can not rely on the recovery of retail lending which would stimulate consumption”, — noted the experts of the Bank. While the share of the population with incomes below the subsistence level increased from 11.2% in 2014 to 13.3 percent in 2015 — this is the largest surge over the past 16 years.
Unequal distribution of income hinders the country out of the crisis, experts say
Photo: Oleg Karsaev / “Kommersant”
All crawl
Associate Professor of the Department of labour Economics faculty of Moscow state University Anton tabah calls the situation with a salary of “poor stabilization”.
“Of course, the acute phase of the crisis has passed. The Minister of labour to something — until recently, the salaries did not grow at all, and if not declined, but on a substantial increase in wages should not count, at least until the end of the year” — the expert believes.
He notes that the hardest hit workers in the industries in which wages were highest — in the construction and banking sector. “Despite the stabilization, there are no sources of growth: some of the workers left, and in the sphere of skilled labour remains the same. It is unlikely that the situation will be worse, but crawling on the bottom can be very long,” — says Tabah.
At the same time, according to the expert, for employers to have stabilized a salary crisis has created a favorable situation: it is possible to increase profits without increasing wages. “In the best position now commodity companies”, — the expert believes. They benefit from a devalued ruble, the fall of which is likely to continue in August, concludes Anton tabah.
