DIFFERENTIATION OF WAGES IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: TERRITORIAL FEATURES

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the differentiation of wages from the position of identifying the influence of the territorial factor. The study of territorial wages remains relevant for the Russian Federation; features of the regions, the development of certain types of activities in combination with regional features continue to affect differences in earnings. The purpose of the article is to identify the territorial features of wage differentiation. Aggregated data of official statistics and microdata of the Selective observation of population incomes and participation in social programs were used as an information base. The analysis of the data of regional statistics of wages, leaders and outsiders, the level of variation in wages within the federal districts. Due to regional price differences, the analysis takes into account differences in changes in prices and the purchasing power of wages. The emphasis is placed on the possibilities of using Mincer type wage models for individual regions and their comparative analysis based on empirical data. Regression models for leader entities and outsider entities, federal districts and the Russian Federation as a whole have been constructed. Based on the results of the analysis, conclusions are drawn about the sustainability of territorial wage differentiation in Russia. The main differences are manifested in the maximum values of the average wage by subjects, while the minimum values are almost at the same level. When purchasing power is taken into account with the help of a fixed set of consumer goods and services, differences in the remuneration of subjects of leadership and subjects of outsiders are reduced from four to three times. Simulation of the logarithm of wages for all federal districts and the Russian Federation as a whole confirmed a statistically significant influence on factors such as age, level of education, gender of a worker, type of settlement, and membership in a particular socio-professional group. A noticeable reduction in the return on education in federal districts with a low level of average wages was revealed; in such conditions, the employee’s membership in the group of managers becomes the dominant earnings. Attention is focused on increasing cash incomes of the population and wages in regions with special living conditions as a factor in overcoming the outflow of the population from Siberia and the Far East. Further areas of the study of territorial wage differentiation can be expanded by using panel data for each region in the analysis in order to study the dependencies in space and time.