Wages have been and remain the basis of well-being for most members of society. The working people and their families meet their physiological and security needs mainly through wages [3, p. 9].
Currently, the situation in the field of remuneration is extremely difficult. As of 01.01.2019, average monthly nominal wage in Russia was 43,724 rubles. However, in the Republic of Ingushetia its value is equal to 16,163 rubles; in the Republic of Mordovia average monthly nominal wage is 18,651; in the Chuvash Republic it is 18,462; in the Republic of Tyva, this wage is 15,603 rubles (see the table).
As of 01.01.2019, in the Russian Federation as a whole, such an important indicator as the real accrued wages of employees amounted to 101.1% compared to the previous year. There are regions where the real accrued wages of employees are even lower than 100%: Belgorod region – 96.2; Ivanovo region – 94.4; Vladimir region – 96.4% and a number of other territorial entities.
The minimum wage (MW) is at a sufficiently low level and it is equal to the living wage (LW), which is based on the commodity bundle that has not been revised since 2012. However, there are regions where the minimum wage is below the living wage: in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug the MW is 50.9% of LW, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug it is up to 69.4%; the situation is the same in some other regions where the article 133.1 of the Labour Code of the Russian Federation is not implemented.
Studying the statistical data as of 01.01.2019, we see that the share of the population with incomes below the living wage in Russia is 12.6%. No less than 12.6% of the population do not have the possibility of normal existence. In the regions, the situation with absolute poverty is even worse: in the Republic of Tyva there is 40.1% of people with incomes below the living wage; in the Chechen Republic this figure is up to 20.5%; in the Republic of Ingushetia we can see 31.9%; in the Mari El Republic – 21.5% (see the table). It should be noted that nowadays there is such a concept as “chronic poverty”, which means poverty passing from year to year. There is also the concept of “working poor” since the minimum wage in the amount of 11,280 rubles does not provide guarantees to employees who received it to meet their needs even to a minimum.