Deputies sharply raised fines for employers for failure to pay the minimum wage

The State Duma approved an increase in the minimum wage from next year to 19,242 rubles per month, which is 3 thousand more than this year. At the same time, the deputies remembered about Russians who receive wages below the minimum level. From January 1, 2024, employers who violate the law, that is, paying lower salaries to their staff, will be fined 100 thousand rubles. What will change in the labor market? Will workers become more protected from the arbitrariness of their bosses?

There is no reason to expect that with an increase in fines for employers there will be a real 180-degree turn. After all, they still operate today, although not as significant. According to Part 6 of Art. 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation from 10 to 20 thousand rubles for an official, from one to five thousand for an individual entrepreneur and from 30 to 50 thousand rubles for a legal entity. Considering that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Russians receive wages at the minimum wage level, such “heavenly” punishments do not frighten domestic employers at all. Or sanctions are not applied at all in practice, they remain, like some kind of horror stories, only on paper.

Now, or more precisely from January 1 of next year, fines are becoming stricter. Up to 100 thousand rubles from a legal entity and up to 30 thousand from an official; alternatively, the law provides for his disqualification for a period of one to 3 years.

You don’t just earn the minimum wage. The Labor Code stipulates that the employee is obliged to fully comply with the 8-hour working day and 5-day working week. And at the same time fulfill the duties assigned to him or the production norm. In general, this is not a freebie, everything is adult.

According to lawyers, it is very difficult to prove that an employer illegally punished a subordinate with a ruble. The boss, using administrative levers, can easily attribute to an employee a violation of labor discipline or a defect in work. And then no labor inspection will help him.

After all, according to the Labor Code, wages below the minimum wage are completely legal – with a part-time working day or an incomplete working week.

According to the former Deputy Minister of Labor of the Russian Federation, trade unionist Pavel Kudyukin, in Russia about 4 million people receive wages below the minimum wage. But statistics do not tell us what percentage of these people are part-time (that is, the law is not violated in relation to them), and how many employees suffer from the extravagance of management.

– Are the penalties imposed against employers serious? Can they be forced to comply with labor laws?

“30 thousand rubles for the head of an enterprise, if it is not very small, is completely insensitive,” he explains. – He will not even shell out this money from his own pocket, but most likely write it off from the company’s funds. And 100 thousand for a legal entity is nothing at all, a mosquito bite. The main problem is not the effect of sanctions, but whether these violations will be detected.

– What do you have in mind?

– It is necessary for the employee to complain to the labor inspectorate. Most likely, he will not do this, understanding the further consequences that could lead to dismissal.

– Suppose you took a risk and complained…

– The labor inspectorate came, installed it, fined… But this is an unlikely scenario. The State Labor Inspectorate is a rather weak body; it does not even have the strength to carry out scheduled inspections. Most often he responds to complaints with unsubscribes. In long answers he will list all the laws and regulations related to the topic of the complaint, and then report that for such and such reasons no violations are seen. This structure does not particularly respond to signals from the field, except in very blatant cases.

– Fines for low wages still exist today, only half as much. Are there any statistics on their use?

– Such cases do occur, but they are extremely rare. For the reasons that I have already mentioned.

In short, there is no need to expect major changes in this regard. The corruption component will not even increase. Since the size of the fines is purely symbolic for employers, there is no point in handing over the envelope or “reaching an amicable agreement.”

But the employer can easily circumvent all these penalties if he formally forces the employee to register as self-employed. There are no restrictions for him here. Or, instead of an employment contract, he enters into a civil law one.