Interesting item on wages in Russia’s defense industrial sector in NG on November 11.
Alina Terekhova reports average monthly pay in the OPK is 17 percent higher than the country as a whole. However, defense industry salaries lag employee earnings in other key sectors (i.e. railroads, oil, finance). Yet they are likely to grow while wages elsewhere will probably begin to fall.
Minpromtorg [rather optimistically] forecasts that the earnings of OPK workers will double over the coming five years.
Defense industry pay grew 13 percent last year [not entirely consistent with the table below] against almost 12 percent in other areas.
Average Pay in the OPK
Earlier this year, workers in Russia’s mining industry made nearly 57,000 rubles per month, oil workers 83,000, railroads 41,000, and finance 67,000. Pay in the defense industries averaged about 38,000 rubles per month during the first half of 2014, according to Rosstat. Nationwide it was about 32,000.
That 38,000 seems to fit in the context of other salaries (e.g. 30-35,000 for junior officers and contractees).
Rising inflation, Terekhova reports, could reduce real earnings for everyone next year.
She quotes a couple experts, neither of whom expects a decline in OPK wages. Despite the stagnation evident in the economy, the Kremlin will likely continue funding the GOZ generously given increased tensions with the West. This will keep upward pressure on defense sector salaries.
It’s interesting that the oft-mentioned “cadre famine” in defense industry hasn’t bid wages higher. But some enterprises report the average age (and presumably the pay grade) of their workers is dropping with the arrival of new and younger employees.
Russian Defense Policy 