Real income of the population is a set of material resources received by workers for their work or other type of activity. Most of the time this is cash. At the same time, what is important is exactly what amount of real goods can be purchased with the money received. Monetary (nominal) income is the amount of money that comes per unit of time to the account of the employee and is the result of his labor activity. 1 month is most often chosen as the time interval.
Types of household income
There are 3 types of income: nominal, disposable and real. Nominal is simply the ruble value of wages. Disposable is the amount of money that a person has left after mandatory payments. It can be used at your discretion. The real income of the population is the amount of goods thatcan be purchased with the amount of money earned. It is a general indicator of living standards.
Sources of real disposable income of the population:
- Wages, which can be piecework or time.
- Other cash payments to employees: remuneration, bonuses, bonuses, etc.
- Social payments.
- Funds from self-employment.
- Income from renting private property.
- Income from operations with a currency whose rate fluctuates every now and then.
- Other types of income.
Wages (including hidden ones) account for 65 percent of all incomes of Russians. Social payments give another 20. Entrepreneurship provides about 8% of total income, transactions with personal property - 6%, and other types of income - 2%. This situation was observed in 2017.
Income levels, even in average terms, are quite small in Russia. In 2016, their level (excluding mandatory payments) amounted to 21,365 rubles. However, in the 1990s they were even lower.
The average pension in 2017 was 13,304 rubles. And the total value of cash income for the year was estimated at 55 trillion rubles.
Modern earnings history
Most often, income means the real income of the population. Their level over the past decades has changed all the time. In the Soviet period (80s), it was relatively close to the modern one, but at the very beginning of the 90s it dropped sharply. It was related tounsuccessful reform of the economy and the state system, the growth of capital outflow and theft. During the 1990s, the average level of income was half that of the Soviet period. However, it was not permanent. The lowest level was recorded in 1999, and the second (less deep) low was recorded in 1992.
Some people have been pushed to the brink of survival by such a sharp drop. However, wage cuts were not the only problem. The quality of life in general also deteriorated sharply. Cheap imported goods poured into the market, and it became much more difficult to work in one's speci alty. Many professionals were forced to sweep the streets or trade.
Other social issues of the 90s
At the same time, the average value of real incomes of the population of Russia does not fully reflect the magnitude of the developed crisis. Due to the enrichment of the minority, the income of the majority obviously fell more significantly than the average figures. According to some reports, during the crisis of the 1990s, wages fell by about 3 times. They fell especially sharply in 1995 and 1998.
In addition to the reduction in the amount of payments, the total wage arrears also increased sharply. In mid-1997, it amounted to 11.4 trillion rubles, and taking into account the military, up to 20 trillion rubles. If we include in these data the debt of private employers, then the figure is approximately 50 trillion rubles.
The situation in the 2000s
Since 1999, there has been a steady growth in real incomes of the population, which has led to a reduction in the poverty rate from 29 to 11%. Wage arrears sharplydecreased. At the beginning of the 2nd decade of the 21st century, the average real disposable income was already higher than in the 1980s. The improvement in the quality of life was reflected in the improvement of the social well-being of Russians and the growth of average life expectancy.
The situation in recent years
Declining real disposable money income of the population resumed as hydrocarbon prices fell, in 2014-16. At the same time, the impact of sanctions, if any, was rather modest. In fact, the export of oil and gas continued to increase, and there were no bans on it at all. However, the counter-sanctions adopted by the Russian authorities could have played a significant role.
The most dramatic decline in income was in 2016. In 2017, despite the recovery in oil prices and prices for other types of export raw materials, to the level of $75 per barrel, revenues continued to decline (by 1.7% per year). At the same time, its pace slowed down significantly. At the same time, according to forecasts, there should have been a slight increase (by 1.2%).
Only in January 2017, due to the payment of a lump-sum pension, the incomes of Russians grew by 8.8%. In monetary terms, this amounted to 5000 rubles. persons of retirement age. This was a kind of compensation for the insufficient indexation of pensions in 2016. This case was the first in the past 26 months of a decline in income and so far the last.
At the same time, there was an increase in nominally real incomes of the population, i.e. wages (an average of 7% higher than in 2016). average valuesalaries, according to Rosstat, amounted to 39,085 rubles. However, in real terms, growth was also noted - by 3.4%. But this growth has been highly uneven across regions and sectors. Therefore, many still complain about the lack of indexation, and even the reduction of nominal wages.
How economists explain the situation
The fall in income against the backdrop of rising wages is due to a decrease in profits in the small business sector, due to a decrease in the purchasing power of the population. The so-called hidden salary is also reduced. All these cuts are more tangible than the growth of the traditional state salary, which gives a tilt towards a decrease in real incomes. In addition, according to the director of the HSE Center for Labor Studies in an interview with RBC, Rosstat calculates the amount of salaries at large and medium-sized enterprises, ignoring small organizations.
The real situation of the Russians may worsen even faster, due to the continued accumulation of outstanding debts and the reduction of accumulated savings. Thus, a kind of inertia effect works.
What are the forecasts
Economists are not in a hurry to be optimistic, even despite the sharp rise in the cost of hydrocarbons. The Russian economy continues to stagnate, and GDP growth is in the region of 1 percent per year. Therefore, specialists do not place great hopes on an increase in income.
Moreover, according to the chief economist of Alfa-Bank Natalia Orlova, one should not expect an increase in the well-being of citizensin 2018. Wage indexation will be very low - only 2.5%, which corresponds to the level of last year's inflation, but this year inflation may be higher, and the main risk of price acceleration will fall on the second half of this year.
GDP growth in 2018, despite high oil prices, is predicted to be very low - only 1% according to Alfa-Bank. At the end of last year, there was a decline in industrial production.
Distribution of population income by region
In 2017, there was a wide range of average wages in Russia, due to the uneven development of regions. The population of the north of Siberia and the Far East is best provided with finances. The low population density, combined with the large revenue from the extraction of valuable raw materials, allows local authorities to allocate sufficient amounts of money for each person. The presence of the so-called northern allowance may also affect.
In the regions of Southern Siberia and most of the European territory of Russia, the level of income is significantly lower. So, if in Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Chukotka, in Yakutia, the Magadan region and the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, the average monthly salary is more than 40 thousand rubles, then in the Moscow region, Primorye, the Arkhangelsk region and the Komi Republic - from 28 to 40 thousand. In the Volgograd and Rostov regions, it is already from 18 to 20 thousand rubles, and, for example, in the Astrakhan region, Kalmykia, Dagestan, the Stavropol Territory and the Saratov region - less than 18 thousand rubles.
Thus, inIn climatically favorable regions, the income level of the population is much lower than in harsh ones.
Minimum Wage
In Russia, this parameter with the abbreviation of the minimum wage is legally approved. Benefits, fines, taxes and other payments, including minimum wages, are calculated on its basis.
The employer is obliged to pay the employee a salary not less than the minimum wage. In doing so, they may resort to subterfuge by establishing part-time jobs that allow them to cut wages without breaking the law.
The size of the minimum wage has been increased repeatedly. From January 1, 2018, its value is 9489 rubles per month. Now the government plans to raise it to the level of the subsistence minimum. However, such actions caused objections from employers, who were sent to the State Duma. According to the deputies from the United Russia party, the increase in the minimum wage will put a big burden on the budget.
So far, the minimum wage in Russia is one of the lowest in the world. It concedes even to an indicator of a number of the countries of Africa. This is due to the fact that it is equated with the subsistence minimum, and not the amount of wages, as in most other countries of the world.
As experiments have shown, it is very problematic to live on the minimum wage in 2017, taking into account utility bills.
Conclusion
Thus, the real income of the population is the total amount of material we alth that can be received by a person in the course of his labor activity per unit of time. Whereinsalaries do not always reflect their size. The population of Russia painfully survived the crisis of the 90s and is now experiencing the influence of the modern systemic crisis in the economic and social sphere. So far, its scale is not as critical as in the 90s. However, the decline in real incomes of the population continues for 4 years in a row. So far, it has reacted little to the recovery in oil prices. Thus, to the question: what is the real income of the population? - was given an exhaustive answer.
