Small businesses spoil Kazan’s dynamics of growth of population’s real wages

Average salary in Kazan is 42,000 rubles

Kazan has been 10th among Russia’s 50 biggest cities by population in dynamics of growth of real wages in percentages in the third quarter of 2020. The analytic staff of FinExpertiza international audit and consultancy network provides such data in its research resting on data about wages of large and medium-sized enterprises in all sectors from a database of cities’ indicators.

As FinExpertiza claim, the average monthly wage after deducting income tax was 42,400 rubles in the capital of Tatarstan in July-September 2020. It was 39,100 rubles in the third quarter of 2019, that’s to say, it has increased by 3,300 rubles. Considering inflation (here and further the data on growth in percentages is also provided considering this indicator), the growth of wages has been 5,16%, the research reads.

In the end, Kazan has been among the cities where the wage has increased by 3,100-4,000 rubles. Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok, Tyumen, Makhachkala, Yekaterinburg, Saratov, Irkutsk are also on the list. The Tatarstan capital was almost there to be in the top 10 cities with the biggest growth of salaries in rubles.

The rating also includes Naberezhnye Chelny where everything is more modest compared to Kazan. Here, the average wave has been 36,500 rubles in the third quarter of 2020. Compared to last year’s analogous period, it has risen only by 2,400 (3,7%).

Where more?

According to the analysts, the real wage has increased give or take in 49 of 50 cities in the third quarter this year. Only Lipetsk is an exception where the wage has dropped by 2,2% compared to the same period in 2019.

Sevastopol turned out to be a leader here where citizens have begun receiving by 17,5% more considering inflation — 35,100 rubles instead of 28,600 rubles a year ago. The growth in other cities hasn’t been so explosive, Makhachkala is second in the top with 7,5% growth of real wages. Khabarovsk is third where the wage has risen by 7,3% (from 50,500 to 56,400 rubles).

Then it is Cheboksary (with 6,6% growth, from 30,300 to 33,300 rubles), Balashikha (+5,84%, from 49,200 to 53,500 rubles), Tomsk (+5,79%, from 41,900 to 46,100 rubles), Moscow (+5,5%, from 92,800 to 100,900 rubles), Krasnoyarsk (+5,4%, from 44,700 to 48,600 rubles), Penza (+5,2%, from 31,700 to 34,600 rubles).

Moreover, Muscovites have had the biggest rise in salaries in absolute terms, they occupy only the 7th position in the rating: in July-September 2020, their wage has grown by 8,160 rubles, to nearly 101,000 rubles per capita. Sevastopol here is the runner-up, its citizens have received by 6,450 rubles (35,000). Like in the previous rating, Khabarovsk is third again, here the annual wage has increased by 5,750 rubles, to 56,300 rubles.

It is followed by Saint Petersburg (wages have grown by 4,840 rubles, to 67,900 rubles), Balashikha (+4,260, to 53,500), Tomsk (+4,140, to 46,100), Krasnoyarsk (+3,900, to 48,700), Vladivostok (+3,790, to 57,400), Tyumen (+3,650, to 56,400) and Makhachkala (+3,550, to 31,700).

Salaries have grown during the coronavirus pandemic mainly in the public sector and large companies in big cities, says FinExpertiza’s President Yelena Trubnikova:

“Employees working there turned out to be protected from losing incomes better because it isn’t so simple to lower official wages officially... While wages in small enterprises, especially in the services industry, have collapsed. A lot of workers completely lost wages during the quarantine because enterprises closed or stayed idle. Unofficially hired workers in the informal sector have seriously suffered because their employers could lower the wage if they wanted. Moreover, the informal sector couldn’t hope for public support measures. In this respect, workers in small cities except for employees in stable large enterprises and in the countryside where the share of the informal sector is high felt the economic consequences of the pandemic,” Trubnikova supposes.

According to her, the damage of coronavirus is distributed in the labour market unevenly and significantly differs depending on the territory and professional sphere.

Is everything so glittering when it comes to wages in Tatarstan?

Despite the statements about the growth of wages, 25% of Tatarstan residents recently claimed in a recent survey their salary had decreased since the beginning of the year, that’s to say, when coronavirus began spreading. 16% of the respondents said their amount of salary had increased since the beginning of the year, 55% replied the wages hadn’t changed. Representatives of the IT sphere, lawyers and marketing researchers reported on a higher wage, while sales specialists, hospitality workers (tourism, hotels, restaurants) and the automotive business said their salaries had gone down. The salary hasn’t changed among security and accounting workers.

According to another survey, 48% of Kazan employers aren’t going to raise the wage. 22% are ready to increase all employee’s salaries a bit, while 11% will opt for sampled indexation. But delays happen even here — 31% of the respondents from Tatarstan talked about this.

As for the salary itself, Tatarstan’s statistics service also provides data on its growth in the context of the republic. In January-September 2020, the average monthly salary of workers of enterprises and organisations (including small enterprises) have increased by 4,7%, to 38,100 rubles.

By Daria Pinegina
Tatarstan