The risks associated with the authorities’ intention to equalize the salaries of public sector employees have been identified

Professor Zubets: “We need to be more careful with the principle of social justice”

The state intends to establish a uniform base salary for public sector employees – at a level not lower than the minimum wage, which today is 19.2 thousand rubles. The idea is based on the principle of social justice: we are talking about an attempt to equalize the salaries of representatives of the same professions, which vary greatly by region. However, this plan has its own risks, associated, in particular, with the universal law of balance: if it has arrived somewhere, then it has departed elsewhere. The measure may hit those workers whose salaries are currently higher than the national average.

A bill to introduce uniform rates for public sector employees in Russia has been prepared by the State Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy. As noted in the explanatory note, today in most regions a structure has developed that leads to “significant both interregional and intraregional differentiation of salaries of public sector workers.” And also to the large difference between the salaries of managers and workers.

This is due to the fact that the federal government ministers do not have the responsibility to set basic salaries and wage rates. There is such a right (in accordance with the amendment to the Labor Code of 2007), but there is no obligation. And now they want to approve it so that, as planned by the authors of the bill, doctors and teachers will gain guaranteed protection. Today in the field of healthcare and education, the base salary rate can range from 5 to 12 thousand rubles, depending on the region.

“The time has come for the emergence of a regulatory framework in Russia for the introduction of a wage system in the public sector and the elimination of existing injustice,” explains one of the authors of the document, head of the Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy Yaroslav Nilov. According to him, people should not wonder why their work is valued differently.

“In 1992, a unified tariff schedule (UTS) was introduced for public sector employees – a rigid system of categories that made it possible to determine the relationship between wages and the qualifications of workers,” says Alexey Zubets, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. – Years later, it was abandoned for two reasons: firstly, for the sake of saving money, which was not always available, and secondly, the ETS enslaved employers. It was replaced by a system that allowed enterprise managers to individually manage the wage fund and reward the most qualified personnel. It was flexible, but flawed from the point of view of social justice, since it carried a grain of voluntarism.”

It is clear that today a general practitioner in the outback receives three times less for his work than a colleague of the same profile in the capital. At the same time, regions have different financial capabilities. And if today we lower the salaries of specialists in the capital, they will completely move from public clinics to private ones. An attempt to put an end to interregional differentiation by introducing an analogue of the UTS is good from the standpoint of social justice, but is far from indisputable from the point of view of market practice: people need to be paid so much that they do not run away, says MK’s interlocutor.

“Since the basic salaries of public sector employees are low, they receive financial bonuses from regional authorities, which can reach up to 60%,” says Zubets. – These additional payments must be maintained, and in the same volume: both people are accustomed to them, and local managers are comfortable, since this flexible system meets the budgetary capabilities of the subjects. Of course, it is necessary to increase the minimum wage itself – to 40 thousand, or better yet 50. This way we will cut off cheap labor, when it is easier for an employer to hire a team of Tajiks with shovels than to buy an excavator. As President Putin stated in his address to the Federal Assembly, the economy needs investment. But they will not exist as long as the country has the practice of using cheap labor, and the heads of enterprises do not need to invest in automation and mechanization of processes. And one more thing: we need to be careful with the principle of social justice, which creates risks for the economy.”

According to Pavel Kudyukin, a member of the Council of the Confederation of Labor of Russia, preparations for the introduction of a new system of remuneration for public sector workers did not begin yesterday. They want to test it in a number of regions as part of a pilot project, but it is not yet known when it will begin. Similar proposals are being made by trade unions, and quite modest ones at that. For general and secondary vocational education, the base salary rate for teachers should be no lower than the minimum wage, for healthcare – no lower than the minimum wage, and for higher education – no less than one and a half times the minimum wage. “This is clearly better than the ugly situation when salaries in the regions often reach the level of the “minimum wage” with various allowances. Therefore, the bill is justified,” summarizes Kudyukin.