Didn't reach the minimum

Negotiations on increasing wages in Moscow ended in a “difficult compromise”

It seems that the authorities of even the most affluent city in the country are unable to bring the minimum wage closer to the most modest consumer needs of citizens. Next year, the minimum wage in the capital should increase by 25%, but this will still not allow it to reach the subsistence level. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov admitted this yesterday during a discussion of a new tripartite agreement with capital employers and trade unions. “We always try to work out a balance in difficult disputes that moves us forward,” the mayor justified himself. “The interest of Moscow trade unions in terms of minimum wages always drives us to the maximum, and the financial capabilities of the city are not limitless.”

The draft tripartite agreement between the Moscow government, trade union associations, industrialists and entrepreneurs, discussed yesterday at the mayor's office, provides for a gradual increase in the minimum wage. Next spring, from May 1, the city minimum wage will increase from 4,900 rubles established in September of this year. up to 5400 rub. And the maximum level is 6100 rubles. it will reach in September 2007. Mr. Luzhkov called such an increase a “difficult compromise.” Trade unions also consider it difficult, since the lowest wages of Muscovites will never reach the subsistence level of an able-bodied resident of the capital.

According to the calculations of the Moscow tripartite commission for the regulation of social and labor relations, in the metropolis today you can survive with an income of at least 8,000 rubles. per person per month. At the same time, the officially established city living wage is only 5,829 rubles. How citizens with incomes below this line exist seems to have little idea both in the mayor's office and in the trade unions. “It’s surprising, but 1.8 million Muscovites manage to live on 5 thousand rubles. per month,” said Mikhail Nagaitsev, chairman of the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions, at a meeting of the capital’s government.

However, according to the chairman of the Moscow Public Relations Committee, Tatyana Vasilyeva, all members of the tripartite commission “agreed to consider in the second half of next year a set of measures to bring the city minimum wage to the subsistence level of the working population.” In addition, next year the government undertakes to increase the wage fund of public sector workers by an average of 40%. “It is necessary to provide funds in the Moscow budget for 2007 to increase the monthly tariff rate of the first category of the UTS,” said Ms. Vasilyeva. “From May 1, this figure should increase by no less than 15%, and from September 1 - by another 25%.” Thus, the rate of the first category of public sector workers in Moscow, currently 2,530 rubles, should increase to 3,640 rubles in a year.

Apparently, long disputes over figures, which ended in a “difficult compromise”, fairly tired the capital’s mayor, so in the future Yuri Luzhkov called on the members of the tripartite commission to discuss not only the minimum wage, which, in his opinion, “determines the level of stratification in society,” but also “moments that go beyond industrial relations.” “The agreement needs to include new sections with social aspects, in particular demographic policy, which affects the interests of all partners, and measures to train qualified personnel,” said the mayor of Moscow.

Yulia KHOMCHENKO