<\/p>\n
Russia is\u00a0seeing a\u00a0rapid rise in\u00a0unpaid wages: arrears have quadrupled in\u00a0a\u00a0year, and workers in\u00a0construction, mining, and even strategic defense plants say they\u2019re going months without\u00a0pay. Official statistics show wage delays climbing sharply, even as\u00a0experts debate whether the surge signals a\u00a0deeper economic problem or\u00a0simply reflects a\u00a0statistical fluctuation. The independent outlet iStories<\/a> spoke with workers and looked at\u00a0economists\u2019 assessments to\u00a0better understand what\u2019s happening. Meduza shares an\u00a0abridged translation of\u00a0their reporting.<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation is\u00a0dire. We\u00a0haven\u2019t been paid in\u00a0three months, and nobody can say when the money will come. People can\u2019t make their loan payments \u2014 everyone has families,\u201d a\u00a0foreman in\u00a0the molding shop at\u00a0the Kingisepp Machine-Building Plant (KMZ) told iStories. \u201cWe\u00a0have nothing to\u00a0live on,\u201d confirmed a\u00a0service engineer who hasn\u2019t received the bonuses that make up\u00a0most of\u00a0his income since August. According to\u00a0workers, the plant is\u00a0seeing mass layoffs, but even as\u00a0they leave, people aren\u2019t able to\u00a0collect their final paychecks.<\/p>\n KMZ is\u00a0a\u00a0strategic enterprise that fulfills contracts for the Russian Navy and the National Guard. Its wage arrears may total at\u00a0least 300 million rubles ($3.7 million), Fontanka reported.<\/p>\n Across Russia (excluding small businesses), wage debt reached 1.95 billion rubles ($24 million) at\u00a0the end of\u00a0September \u2014 a\u00a0fourfold increase over the past year, according to\u00a0Russia\u2019s Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat).<\/p>\n Who in\u00a0Russia isn\u2019t getting paid<\/strong><\/p>\n Rosstat says nearly half of\u00a0all wage arrears (44.1 percent) are concentrated in\u00a0the construction sector. For example, workers building the M-12 highway in\u00a0the Republic of\u00a0Bashkortostan, a\u00a0new student campus in\u00a0Oryol, the Krasnoyarsk metro, and residential buildings in\u00a0Nizhnevartovsk have all reported delayed pay this year.<\/p>\n Last week, roughly 300 construction workers at\u00a0a\u00a0nuclear reactor site in\u00a0the Ulyanovsk region went on\u00a0strike over unpaid wages. Some \u201cno\u00a0longer see any positive prospects, fear the company will go\u00a0bankrupt, and have already filed resignation letters,\u201d one employee said.<\/p>\n Mining companies account for the second-largest share of\u00a0wage debt (17.5 percent). In\u00a0one of\u00a0the most high-profile cases this year, more than 500 miners were laid off from a\u00a0coal operation in\u00a0the Kemerovo region.<\/p>\n In\u00a0reality, though, examples can be\u00a0found in\u00a0almost every sector. Oil workers, hockey players, teachers, and medical staff have all faced wage delays. In\u00a0the Irkutsk region, a\u00a0boiler plant worker who hadn\u2019t been paid for months was forced to\u00a0sell his horse so\u00a0he\u00a0could take his child to\u00a0the hospital.<\/p>\n How serious is\u00a0the problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n As\u00a0of\u00a0the end of\u00a0September, 10,300 employees across Russia had experienced delayed wages \u2014 an\u00a084.6 percent increase compared to\u00a0the previous year, according to\u00a0Rosstat. Total wage debt reached 1.95 billion rubles ($24 million), four times higher than a\u00a0year earlier. Rostrud, the federal labor watchdog, received 18,400 complaints about unpaid wages in\u00a02024 \u2014 up\u00a037.4 percent.<\/p>\n Still, these numbers are modest by\u00a0historical standards. In\u00a01996, as\u00a0many as\u00a060 percent of\u00a0Russians were paid late. Wage arrears peaked in\u00a01998, when average monthly delays totaled about 100 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) \u2014 at\u00a0a\u00a0time when Russia\u2019s GDP was just 2.6 trillion rubles, or\u00a0$34 billion (today it\u00a0exceeds 200 trillion, or\u00a0$2.5 trillion).<\/p>\n Part of\u00a0this year\u2019s increase stems from a\u00a0technical change. In\u00a02025, Rosstat updated the way it\u00a0records wage delays, which means more companies now report them, wrote Georgy Ostapkovich from Moscow\u2019s Higher School of\u00a0Economics (HSE).<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t a\u00a0trend \u2014 just a\u00a0minor fluctuation linked to\u00a0the broader economic slowdown. Wage arrears have long been a\u00a0marginal issue in\u00a0Russia\u2019s labor market,\u201d said a\u00a0Russian labor market expert who requested anonymity.<\/p>\n Sign up for Meduza\u2019s daily newsletter<\/p>\n A digest of Russia\u2019s investigative reports and news analysis. If it matters, we summarize it.<\/p>\n On\u00a0the other hand, Rosstat counts only medium and large companies, excluding small businesses. And by\u00a0its own tally, small firms employ 35 million of\u00a0Russia\u2019s 74.6 million workers. Rosstat also disregards short delays; for a\u00a0case to\u00a0appear in\u00a0the statistics, a\u00a0wage must be\u00a0more than a\u00a0month overdue. Even so, another Russian economist \u2014 also speaking anonymously \u2014 said there\u2019s no\u00a0clear trend toward sustained growth in\u00a0arrears and attributes the recent surge in\u00a0the official numbers to\u00a0a\u00a0very low base.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0Rosstat, most wage debts stem from companies\u2019 lack of\u00a0working capital \u2014 often tied to\u00a0weak demand, delayed payments from customers, rising costs, and other financial pressures. At\u00a0the Kingisepp Machine-Building Plant, for example, the company is\u00a0both suing debtors and being sued itself. Fontanka estimates that if\u00a0KMZ wins all its claims, it\u00a0could end up\u00a0hundreds of\u00a0millions of\u00a0rubles in\u00a0the black. Another issue is\u00a0the sharp drop in\u00a0state contracts: KMZ received 150 million rubles ($1.8 million) worth in\u00a02023, but less than 60 million ($738,000) in\u00a02025, according to\u00a0RBC. Still, workers insisted there were no\u00a0work stoppages before the wage delays and said the plant had plenty of\u00a0orders, at\u00a0least \u201caccording to\u00a0rumors.\u201d<\/p>\n A\u00a0high is\u00a0another source of\u00a0wage delays. As\u00a0Igor Polyakov of\u00a0the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting (CMASF) explained, many companies used to\u00a0cover payroll by\u00a0taking short-term loans \u2014 but these have become prohibitively expensive. Large corporations sometimes divert funds earmarked for wages or\u00a0supplier payments to\u00a0service their debts instead, effectively using those obligations as\u00a0a\u00a0form of\u00a0\u201cinterest-free borrowing,\u201d said Alexander Safonov, a\u00a0professor at\u00a0the Financial University under the Government of\u00a0the Russian Federation. As\u00a0a\u00a0result, their contractors can face not only wage delays but even the risk of\u00a0bankruptcy. Some companies may even place payroll funds in\u00a0short-term deposits to\u00a0earn interest before paying employees.<\/p>\n Another factor, Polyakov added, is\u00a0the rapid rise in\u00a0wages themselves. Rosstat reports that in\u00a0August the average monthly salary in\u00a0Russia was 92,900 rubles ($1,143), up\u00a012.2 percent year over year in\u00a0nominal terms. With economic growth slowing, companies that recently hired staff at\u00a0higher rates are now struggling to\u00a0pay them.<\/p>\n Meduza is\u00a0the world\u2019s largest independent Russian news outlet. Every day, we\u00a0bring you essential coverage from Russia and beyond. Our independence lets us\u00a0tell the stories others can\u2019t and help you make sense of\u00a0one of\u00a0the world\u2019s most enigmatic regions. Explore our reporting\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow us<\/a>\u00a0wherever you get your news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia is\u00a0seeing a\u00a0rapid rise in\u00a0unpaid wages: arrears have quadrupled in\u00a0a\u00a0year, and workers in\u00a0construction, mining, and even strategic defense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,179,18,19,17,1175,1170,1173,1162,1155,1167,1157,1168,1174,1163,1151,1158,1152,1160,1161,1153,1156,1154,1172,1166,1159,1171,1169,1165,1164],"class_list":{"0":"post-186441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-1175","14":"tag-1170","15":"tag-1173","16":"tag-1162","17":"tag-1155","18":"tag-1167","19":"tag-1157","20":"tag-1168","21":"tag-1174","22":"tag-1163","23":"tag-1151","24":"tag-1158","25":"tag-1152","26":"tag-1160","27":"tag-1161","28":"tag-1153","29":"tag-1156","30":"tag-1154","31":"tag-1172","32":"tag-1166","33":"tag-1159","34":"tag-1171","35":"tag-1169","36":"tag-1165","37":"tag-1164"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115568671729413338","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}