Page 57 - RusRPTFeb24

4.5.2 Income dynamics
Salaries in Russia gained 7.7% in real terms over ten months of 2023,
President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the Cabinet.
"The real growth of salaries totaled 7.7% over ten months of the last year. This is good but probably one thing should be compared with another one, keeping inflation processes in mind," Putin noted.
The growth of real wages in Russia amounted to 4.2% in January - April 2023, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said earlier.
In 2024 the salary race between Russian employers will intensify given the persistently tight labour market and staff shortages, Kommersant daily reports citing a survey of employment agencies and trade union representatives interviewed.
As followed closely by bne IntelliNews, amid the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, the mobilisation and the brain drain it has caused, Russia faces a mounting labour crisis as worker shortages grow and the labour market shows the lowest number of young workers since the early 1990s.
Reportedly, some employers are already abandoning the existing informal industry agreements, which last year allowed businesses to increase wages at a similar pre-negotiated slow pace.
In 2023, the demand for labour, according to estimates by experts at CMACP, rose to record highs in recent years, with the number of vacancies outpaced the number of people employed by almost 2mn people.
While Russian employers identified hiring new employees and retaining existing employees as their main challenge, most companies named salary increases as the main tool for this purpose. According to economists interviewed by Kommersant at the end of the year, the salary growth in 2024 could amount to 1.3-1.6% in real terms.
Experts interviewed by Kommersant believe that at the end of the year, the increase in salaries may be even higher than expected – due to changes in the approach of companies to indexation. The need to work in a situation of staff shortages may have also made employers less tolerant of each other and the industry’s overall needs.
The number of dollar millionaires living in Russia has fallen by 24% since 2013 to 68,400 people, ranking the country last among BRICS members, Henley & Partners said in its report.
57 RUSSIA Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com