How do the salaries of Russian and Western officials differ?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The size of the salaries of most ministers caused a great resonance in society: they exceeded the mark of 1 million rubles. per month (data for 2016). And this was in a crisis year, when the government itself called on the people to "tighten their belts tighter."

Lies and statistics

The average salary in Russia in 2016, according to Rosstat, was 36,746 rubles. This amount is calculated by adding the salaries of directors of state corporations and the same ministers with the salaries of nannies in hospitals and cleaning women in rural schools. Some get more than 1 million rubles a month, others do not even reach 10 thousand rubles, and 35 thousand rubles come out of the circle. per person.

In relatively "rich" regions, the average salary (half of the workers get more, half - less) is about 53-59 thousand rubles, in the poor - less than 20 thousand (in the Bryansk region - 17, 6 thousand). In 14 regions of Russia the average salary is above 30 thousand rubles, in 33 constituent entities - less than 20 thousand. In simple terms, officials eat meat, and I eat cabbage, but on average we eat cabbage rolls

The statistics trick doesn't end there. They say that we have “only” 22 million poor people. At the same time, it is officially recognized that there are more than 15 million working poor today, and those who do not have a permanent job (this does not include their dependents) - from 20 to 30 million people! We are assured that inflation has dropped to 2.5% per annum - with a real rise in prices of 7.8% per annum. Over 3 years, with a total increase in consumer prices of more than 45% (including 10.5% in 2017, 12.9% in 2016 and 16.5% in 2015), the official inflation estimate did not exceed 14.1 %, including 2.5% in 2017, 4.5% in 2016 and 6.5% in 2015. Increased pensions and benefits over these years by 14.1%, and should have been by 45% ! It turns out that pensions are growing, but you can buy less and less with them.

Space salaries

The point, apparently, is that the consciousness of the servants of the people determines a completely different existence. According to the Ministry of Finance, which was cited by RBC, the salary of Anton Siluanov, the head of the department, exceeded the national average by 47 times and amounted to 1 million 730 thousand rubles. per month. The head of the Ministry of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukaev (who was tried for a bribe throughout 2017 and was eventually sentenced to 8 years in prison) and Maxim Oreshkin in 2016 received 1 million 220 thousand rubles each. (33 times the average). Among those whose incomes were disclosed (the salaries of the ministers of the power bloc and the president were not published), the head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina pleased the most with her successes - her earnings exceeded the national average by 61 times and amounted to 2 million 250 thousand rubles. The most modest were the salaries of members of the Federation Council - 385 thousand rubles. per month, or only 10, 5 times higher than the average in Russia. But the average salary of all federal officials in 2016 was "only" 116 thousand rubles. - follows from the data of Rosstat.

Since January 1, 2018, the salaries of state employees, including those listed, have also been indexed by 4%. This is a requirement of the famous "May decrees", according to which, among other things, it was assumed that the salaries of teachers, doctors, athletes and scientists will be twice the average in Russia. However, if we take the salaries of all workers in education and health care, then today only 40% of representatives of these groups of state employees have a salary higher than the average, for the remaining 60% it is much lower than the national average.

Officials' salaries were not indexed for 4 years due to the economic situation in the country. They were not indexed, but … at the same time, they could still increase - for example, because departments are allowed to use the salary fund for vacant positions on a limited scale for additional payments to employees. Allowed (in the past, albeit for some time suspended by the president) multi-million payments for many high-ranking officials combining the positions of "zits-chairmen" or performing other representative (read - lobbying) functions in state-owned companies and other private-state and public organizations (for example, one Deputy Prime Minister V. Mutko represented in a number of Olympic and football organizations in Russia).

Growth did not stop even after 2015, when President Putin signed a decree on salary cuts for himself, the Prime Minister, parliamentarians, employees of the government apparatus and his own administration, as well as the leadership of the special services. By the way, the president extended the decree to cut the salaries of the head of state and prime minister by 10% until December 31, 2018; his income in 2016, according to the press service, amounted to 8.86 million rubles, or more than 738 thousand rubles. per month.

It should be noted that top officials differ from us and the structure of income. The salary in it is not the largest percentage - for the same Siluanov, according to the declaration, only a fifth. The biggest gap between salary and income, journalists found in the Minister for North Caucasus Affairs Lev Kuznetsov, who previously worked in business. With earnings 453, 9 thousand rubles. he declared a monthly income of as much as $ 48.5 million, or 1,320 times the average earnings. It will take an average worker 110 years to earn that much!

Where does the sovereign's people get that kind of money from? Evil tongues speak of the presence of some high-ranking officials of additional income, bonuses and fees, reflected in the closed data of banking, insurance and real estate companies, the size of which is sometimes many times higher than official salaries.

But what about the "decaying West"?

The earnings of our officials are incomparable with the earnings of their foreign colleagues. So, the salary of employees of the administration Trumpcannot exceed the minimum wage in the United States by more than 4-7 times - in accordance with the standards of the International Labor Organization. The salary of the President of the United States himself is 400 thousand dollars a year (more than 1.9 million rubles a month; the eccentric rich man Donald Trump refused it altogether), 20 top officials receive 172 thousand dollars a year (or 831 thousand rubles per month), and the minimum wage for officials in the White House is 41 thousand dollars. The income gap is not as great as ours - a professor at an American university receives 100-150 thousand dollars a year. And in order to increase the salary of a senior official, a special resolution of the Congress is needed.

European officials also lag significantly behind Russian officials in terms of income. Even State Duma deputies receive twice as many MEPs. And the salary German Chancellor Angela Merkel - a little more than 20 thousand euros per month (1.5 million rubles), members of her cabinet - 15 thousand euros. The salary of the Italian prime minister is 20 thousand euros per month. The annual salary of the Prime Minister of Great Britain is 150 thousand pounds sterling (less than 1 million rubles per month). The salary of British ministers is slightly lower - 130 thousand pounds. The Norwegian prime minister receives 150 thousand euros a year (900 thousand rubles a month).

In a word, our ministers and heads of agencies, with gigantic salaries, are like employees of a joint-stock company, where they are engaged in commercial activities. After all, only top managers of leading transnational corporations receive salaries comparable to the earnings of our ministers - there are no more than 20 of them in the world. Even for such super-profitable companies as Microsoft, Enron or Apple, such high salaries of top executives are a great luxury. Judging by the growth rates of our ministers' earnings, these managers are not just efficient, but super efficient.

But why, then, does our industry produce several times less goods, and the population lives an order of magnitude worse than anywhere else in the developed world? Why do we have such low average salaries, while in Europe, where officials and deputies cost the people half the price, salaries in terms of rubles range from 43 thousand in the poor Balkan countries to 416 thousand in the rich and socially oriented Scandinavian states? In terms of management efficiency, we lag behind Western countries by 10-15 times and lose almost 2/3 of the increase in labor productivity, while in developed countries we lose no more than 5%. Although we work many times more.

At the same time, only in the past, 2017, 1.7 trillion rubles were withdrawn from Russia.(Central Bank data), in total, in the post-Soviet years, about 60 trillion rubles were taken to the West. And the number of violations in the use of budget funds, according to the Accounts Chamber, increased over the past year by 97% (up to 1.9 trillion rubles).

Are its managers costing too much to the country? In all fairness, given our current meager successes and the beggarly earnings of the overwhelming masses of ordinary people, it would be necessary to considerably curtail the immoderate appetites and record incomes of our officials.