Since October 1, millions of state employees are waiting for a salary increase: who and how much will receive

Experts explained the features of the autumn indexation of salaries of civil servants

Starting October 1, a pleasant salary indexation procedure awaits employees of budgetary organizations. True, it will affect only those who do not fall under the May decrees of the president. It is also important that the amount of indexation will not be the same: it differs for certain categories of state employees – depending on their profession and region of residence. In the peculiarities of the October payments, “MK” understood with the help of experts.

Since October, it is planned to index the wages of those categories of civil servants who were not included in the lists from the famous May presidential decrees. We are talking about millions of workers working in the public sector, for example, in rescue centers of the Ministry of Emergencies, social institutions and hydrometeorological services, hygiene centers of Rospotrebnadzor, standardization, metrology and testing centers of Rosstandart, rehabilitation centers for the disabled and a number of other categories.

Note that the remaining professional groups are awaiting indexation from January 1, 2023. This will just concern those categories of state employees that are indicated in the May decrees.

The peculiarity of the October increase is that it is carried out not from the federal, but at the expense of regional budgets – very different in terms of their level of content. And the regional authorities have already begun to announce the amount of wage increases for state employees from October 1. Basically, the announced level of indexation ranges from 4 to 6%.

Let’s say, official salaries of all employees of state institutions of the Rostov region will increase by 4%. This will affect more than 51,000 workers from 460 public sector institutions, as well as service and technical personnel of government agencies in the region. The wages of state employees in the Bryansk and Arkhangelsk regions will be increased by the same percentage. And the salary of employees of regional institutions of the public sector of the Vladimir region will increase by 6.1%. An additional increase of 9% will be received by state employees of the Voronezh region. The measure will affect drivers, janitors, cleaners, movers, coaches…

The indexation of wages for public sector employees is a positive step, financial analyst Anna Bodrova believes. Although, according to her, it is unlikely that the salaries of state employees will be raised by the amount of current inflation, which now exceeds 14%, the upcoming indexation will help smooth out the gap in income somewhat. “Although we must be aware that an increase of 4-6% for low-paid categories of state employees is a purely “cosmetic” repair of wages, which will not significantly improve the situation with the standard of living,” the expert concludes.

But the chief analyst of TeleTrade, Mark Goykhman, for his part, believes that state employees in Russia are lucky. “Employment in the public sector means not only a stable salary, but also its equally stable indexation. Although this advantage can be recognized as a certain compensation for the lower wages of ordinary employees in the public sector,” the expert says. According to him, indexation in “poor” industries is a relevant and necessary step that should only be welcomed. However, its size, judging by the statements of the regions, seriously lags behind the level of inflation, which indexation is supposed to compensate for.

Economist Andrei Loboda, director of external relations at BitRiver, calculated that for a number of categories of workers falling under the October indexation, the increase will average 1.5-2 thousand rubles per month. “Of course, it is difficult to defeat personal inflation with such an amount, but the social support provided today is of strategic importance. It is a pity that the regional authorities and municipalities have to pay for the accelerating inflation, as there is traditionally less money in their budgets than in the federal bins,” the expert says. According to him, the authorities of the regions as a result of wage indexation may face a deficit in local budgets, which threatens, in particular, with job cuts.