Salaries differ most in Moscow, the Astrakhan region and St. Petersburg, and least in Tyva, Kalmykia and the Magadan region

Photo: Alexey BULATOV

Here’s news about salary inequality arrived in time. Analysts from the auditing and consulting network FinExpertiza found that it is declining.

First, let’s understand what wage inequality is. This is the name given to the ratio of the average wage level of two equal 20 percent groups of workers with the lowest and highest earnings. These groups are determined by Rosstat when it conducts research on the distribution of the number of employees of large and medium-sized enterprises by wages. All companies (except small businesses) provide such information as of April once every two years.

So, in 2023, the average salaries of the 20% least and 20% of the most paid workers differ by 7.7 times – 22.7 thousand rubles versus 173.7 thousand rubles. The same coefficient was in 2019, and in the pandemic year of 2021 it was 7.9. For comparison, in 2011 it was 9.3.

Salaries differ most in Moscow, the Astrakhan region and St. Petersburg, and least in Tyva, Kalmykia and the Magadan region.

Analysts attribute the decrease in salary inequality this year to an increase in earnings of the least paid fifth of employees by 30%, while the increase in the best paid fifth was less than 27%.

As for industries, the greatest inequality is observed in the field of information and communications (IT, telecommunications, television and radio, publishing) – a difference of 11.4 times. In the field of personal services (repair, dry cleaning, beauty salons, saunas, etc.) – 11 times, in finance and insurance – 10.5 times.

The minimum spread in wages in agriculture is 5.1 times, energy – 5.3 times, and mining – 5.6 times.

“Recently we have seen a reduction in the number of people receiving higher salaries, and a reduction in those who receive lower salaries,” explains a labor market specialist, vice-rector of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Alexander Safonov. – The reason is that the increase in the minimum wage forces employers, with the same amount of wages, to redirect part of the salary towards people receiving wages at or below the minimum wage. Another reason is that in the current economic situation, employers are forced to spend money on hiring workers and key specialists. Thus, for these categories of employees the salary increases, but for highly paid ones – not. We have always had differences in wages across regions. This is due to the structure of employment. In agricultural regions, pay is lower, in industrial regions it is higher. There are a large number of organizations related to management in the Moscow agglomeration, so the difference between salaries there will always be higher.

Salaries differ most in Moscow, the Astrakhan region and St. Petersburg. Graphics by Dmitry Orlov

Least of all in Tyva, Kalmykia and the Magadan region. Graphics by Dmitry Orlov

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