The authorities are concerned about the problem of strong differentiation of teachers’ salaries in the regions

The authorities are concerned about the problem of strong differentiation of teachers’ salaries in the regions, as follows from Vladimir Putin’s statements made on Wednesday at a meeting of the State Council. Now the salary range, depending on the subject, ranges from 31 thousand to 140 thousand rubles. per month. A possible solution to the problem could be the introduction of federal additional payments to teachers, similar to previously established payments to health workers. For now, however, the government promises only to begin monitoring the salaries of teaching staff by region and, based on the data obtained, to think about new approaches to teachers’ salaries.

During a meeting of the State Council, Vladimir Putin proposed revising the teacher remuneration system. “We need to improve and make teacher remuneration mechanisms more equitable. And above all, to significantly increase the incomes of teachers in those regions where they are now significantly lower than the national average,” the president announced.

Let us recall that back in 2012, he instructed the regions to begin increasing the salaries of health workers, teachers, university professors, social workers and cultural workers – they were supposed to increase to 100-220% of the average salary in the region (May decrees). But 11 years after the announcement of this initiative, the differentiation of average teacher salaries by region remains high.

• On average, based on the results of nine months of 2023, it was 88 thousand rubles. per month, but its minimum figure is much lower – in the Ivanovo region it is 31 thousand rubles.
• The maximum figure is in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (140 thousand rubles).

Although most regions adhere to the target ratio of teacher salaries and the average economic indicator, in 2022, according to experts from the Center for the Economics of Continuing Education IPEI RANEPA, the number of vacancies in the field of secondary education in the country exceeded the number of workers by 3.1%. The greatest shortage of teaching staff is recorded in the Far Eastern Federal District (4.5%), the smallest in the North Caucasus (1.2%, more details) see “Kommersant” dated July 27).

As Vladimir Putin explained on Wednesday, although the May decrees “played a certain role in raising the status of teaching work,” the difference in remuneration for teaching labor in the regions is fraught with the fact that gaps in the quality of teaching between them are accumulating and the staff shortage is growing. “All this violates the key principle of equal educational opportunities for our children,” the president noted.

Profile Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that in order to reduce wage differentiation, the Russian Tripartite Commission will engage in quarterly monitoring of teachers’ pay.

“Let’s see where we have real problems and where we need to reduce differentiation. Accordingly, together with the Ministry of Finance we will work in this area, and, of course, together with the regions,” the Deputy Prime Minister promised.

Also, according to her, the government plans to develop amendments to the Labor Code to introduce payments to teachers for mentoring – on the basis of the Ministry of Education, with the participation of experts, there is a working group that will soon present the concept of this activity. “Together with parliament, we will develop amendments to labor legislation that will allocate these payments as part of the wage fund and regulate them by regulations so that this acquires the force of law,” explained Tatyana Golikova.

It should be noted that previously the authorities solved a similar problem of differentiation in the healthcare system – although the May decrees made it possible to increase the average level of wages for doctors and nurses in each region, a large difference in wages remained within this sector. As a result, the government decided to reduce it by introducing special social supplements for certain categories of health workers directly from the budget – about half of all employees in public hospitals and clinics now receive them (more details see “Kommersant” dated December 18). It can be assumed that a similar measure will be proposed for teachers – during the election campaign of Vladimir Putin or at the time of reorganization of the cabinet of ministers in April-May 2024.

Anastasia Manuilova