At the end of December last year, two sectors of the Russian economy for the first time exceeded the mark of 400 thousand rubles in terms of average wages. It’s about oil and gas sector and financial sector.
Employees involved in oil and natural gas production received an average of 411 thousand rubles in the last month of the year. Financiers and employees of insurance companies turned out to be even higher – their average income reached 458 thousand rubles. Both sectors are far ahead of the rest in terms of remuneration.
At the next level are industries with an average salary of over 300 thousand rubles. Civil aviation and space industry workers earned about 348 thousand rubles, and employees of international organizations – 334 thousand. These figures are also significantly higher than the Russian average.
The calculation method takes into account the average monthly accrued salary before taxes. The statistics include all payments, including bonuses, and the income of all categories of workers, including those who receive extremely high remunerations. That is why averages may not coincide with the actual salaries of the majority.
To understand the scale: the average salary in the country in December was almost 140 thousand rubles. A year earlier, this figure was at 129 thousand. Thus, overall growth for the year exceeded 8%. However, in the oil and gas and financial sectors, incomes are growing noticeably faster and are already significantly above average.
High wages in the oil and gas sector are traditionally explained by difficult working conditions, shift work and the high capital intensity of projects. The financial sector, in turn, requires exceptional qualifications and remains one of the most competitive in the market, which also affects the level of pay.
Analysts are paying attention to the growing gap between industries. In the public sector and a number of areas of the manufacturing industry, wages are increasing more slowly. Mining companies and banks maintain leadership thanks to high profitability and export revenue.
Thus, December statistics once again secured the status of the oil and gas and financial sectors as the most profitable in the country. For job seekers, this is a reference point. For the economy as a whole, this is a signal about the persistence of the raw materials model and the uneven distribution of income between industries.
Source: RIA Novosti
Image: Roman Naumov
