“Crane operator – 115 thousand”: the expert found a catch in the promises of high salaries

The magic formula “salary plus interest” has been around for a very long time.

For the past few decades, Russians have lived with the idea that working professions are the lot of outsiders, and that every more or less promising person should receive a higher education and become a lawyer or economist. Today, everything is changing, and simple, labor occupations fall into the top of the highest paid jobs (even in Moscow!) A car painter, a dump truck driver, a truck driver, a plumber or an electrician in 2023 can earn more than their manager peers.

Despite fluctuations in the exchange rate, the sacramental question “Do you get a hundred?” Is considered a certain measure of financial success in the past few years. At the current exchange rate, 100 thousand rubles is only a thousand dollars, not such an exorbitant amount, but not everyone reaches it: only 14% of vacancies in Moscow imply a salary above 100 thousand. This data was shared by one of the popular job search sites. Another 10% of vacancies offer applicants an income of 90-99 thousand rubles.

The average Moscow salary (according to data for the summer of 2023) was 73,499 rubles, and this is 15% more than it was a year ago.

Predictably high incomes are promised to a real estate agent (realtor) – up to 154 thousand rubles. However, it is important to understand here that he most often does not have a salary, there is only a percentage of successful transactions. Accordingly, income may vary from month to month.

The top 10 also includes a trucker (137,176 rubles), a broker (127,372 rubles), a measurer (126,220 rubles), a facade worker (124,326 rubles), a car painter (121,838 rubles), a dump truck driver (121,369 rubles) and a crane operator (115,940 rubles).

These salaries rightly seem high, so the question arises: can workers in the working professions today really have such an income?

Compare these numbers with offers on another job site. Among the most recent, published today, is, for example, an electrician – they promise to pay him from 95,450 to 136,700 rubles per hand. The vacancy “On duty electrician” in a residential complex in the west of Moscow – from 90 thousand rubles. The plumber does not lag behind his colleagues – in the latest announcement he is promised a solid salary “fork” – from 80 to 150 thousand (salary plus a percentage of the work performed). Or, for example, a tiler-finisher – he is promised from 80,000 to 200,000 rubles in hand.

It sounds tempting, but … The magic formula “salary plus interest” (as an option “plus fees”) has existed for a very long time – and not everyone likes it. You need to carefully read the terms of the vacancy, and even better – ask questions to the employer. If the price is formulated as “Up to 90 thousand”, you need to find out where “from” begins. It is possible that your real salary will be half as much. If, on the contrary, it is written “From 50 thousand”, you need to ask where the upper limit of the permissible is and whether it is realistic to achieve it. In practice, there are almost no vacancies without an income ceiling. As HR specialist Lyudmila Shashkova noted in a conversation with an MK correspondent, such a scheme is especially popular in sales or where there is “piecework” work, but in recent years fewer candidates have agreed to it.

– Unscrupulous employers lure you with a high upper bar: they say, with us you can earn up to 300 thousand rubles! It turns out to earn only 70-80? So, you are trying hard, there is an opportunity! This is a very good psychological trap: supposedly there is no ceiling, only you decide how much you will earn. Then such an employee can also be reproached for the fact that he “does not live up to”. In addition, this is an excellent field for creating competition – if we are talking about a percentage of sales, for example, or about fees for actually done work, employees will literally scratch out orders from each other, – the expert explains.

A more correct option, Shashkova calls the situation when the expected salary of the applicant is the average amount that colleagues usually receive.

– You can say this: “You will have a salary of 50 thousand, and the percentage of sales usually turns out another 20-25 thousand, maybe a little more.” This is correct: the applicant will know the approximate amount of the total income, but will also understand that pleasant bonuses are possible. But, of course, you should not settle for a “floating” income if you have large financial obligations, for example, you pay a mortgage, Shashkova added.

A vacancy for a tractor driver (luggage delivery) at one of the Moscow airports looks much more plausible – he will receive from 81,000 to 100,000 rubles before taxes.