Page 33 - RusRPTFeb20

year, as the real disposable income growth peaked at over 3% in 3Q19.
A quarter of Russian companies (25%) are planning to raise wages for their staff in 2020​, while 35% of the companies foresee no wage increase, a survey by Rabota.ru portal cited by RBC business portal on December 9 shows. The number of companies that are not planning to increase wages declined notably from 56% in 2018, while the number of those planning to increase the wages increased from 18%. The readiness to increase the wages is illustrating higher competition among the employers for human resources, the authors of the survey believe. Headhunting, employing, and training new staff is seen as more expensive than motivating and remunerating existing key personnel, according to the job-searching portal Rabota.ru. In August 2019 another survey by the portal showed that 88% of Russians did not have their wages raised in the past 12 months. 86% of the respondents were not happy about their salary, while ​72% are considering moving away to freelance​, another recent study showed.
The Russian Constitution will ensure that the minimum wage will not be below the subsistence level of working people ​and pensions will be indexed regularly, according to an amendment prepared by the president. “In order to protect citizen’s rights, provide equal opportunities on the entire territory of the country, Article 75 of Constitution of the Russian Federation is offered to be amended to include stipulations setting the minimum wage at no lower than the subsistence level for the labor force in general in the Russian Federation, to introduce guarantees of obligatory indexation of pensions, social benefits, and other social payments, and the general principles of nationwide pension provision,” the statement read.
The World Bank has published an innovative report that attempts to measure Russia’s wealth​. Total wealth per capita has grown by around 80% between 2000 and 2017, however it remains more than three times lower than the OECD average and lags behind other upper middle-income and high-income commodity exporters.
The distribution of Russia’s wealth between the different forms of capital is unusual. Human capital accounts for only 46% of Russia’s total wealth, compared with an OECD average of 70%. This is surprising given that Russia’s education performance is comparable with other OECD countries, as confirmed by the latest PISA studies released last week (although scores for reading and mathematics deteriorated slightly compared with 2015). Russians are highly educated, but they do not appear to be able to make the most of their skills in the Russian market (as suggested indirectly by the number of people expressing a desire to emigrate).
Natural capital accounts for 20% of all of Russia’s capital, and 15% of the total is non-renewables. A large share of Russia’s total wealth is therefore threatened by a shift to a low-carbon economy. Indeed, Russia’s total wealth has declined since 2014 owing to stagnant growth in human capital and a large decline in the value of its oil and gas endowments.
33​ RUSSIA Country Report​ February 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com