"Increase at a faster pace": Putin proposed to increase the minimum wage in 2022 to 13,890 rubles

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed an additional increase in the cost of living in 2022.

With such an initiative, the head of state addressed the participants of the meeting on social issues on Thursday, November 18.

“I propose to set a higher level of the subsistence minimum for 2022, to increase it at a faster pace than inflation, namely by 8.6%.

In absolute terms, for the country as a whole, the subsistence minimum should rise to 12,654 rubles a month, which is one thousand rubles more than today, "Putin said.

As the Russian leader noted, now the draft federal budget for next year provides for the indexation of the subsistence minimum by 2.5%.

However, such parameters are significantly behind the current inflation rate, which has accelerated in recent months, the president explained.

According to him, as a result of the increase in the subsistence level in Russia, social payments will also have to grow.

We are talking about benefits, material support for families with children, as well as supplements to pensions.

As the president emphasized, today millions of Russians receive such assistance.

Vladimir Putin recalled that in accordance with the Russian Constitution, the minimum wage in the country cannot be less than the subsistence level.

Against this background, the minimum wage in 2022 will also be increased by 8.6% - up to 13,890 rubles a month.

"This decision also affects many of our citizens, and again, the matter is not even in absolute terms - the fact is that the minimum wage is used to calculate benefits for temporary disability, and also serves as a guideline when setting salaries in the public sector, in the sectors of the economy," explained the head of state.

The President said that in the coming days he would make appropriate amendments to the State Duma, and asked the deputies to support the initiatives during the second reading of the bill on the federal budget.

The Russian leader also recalled the need to index pensions above actual inflation.

“Since 2019, we have strictly adhered to this rule.

Today, given the significant rise in inflation, it would be wrong to deviate from this principle.

Proposals on specific parameters for indexing pensions are now being worked out both in the government and in the administration, and the deputies are thinking about this.

We will return to them in the near future, ”said Vladimir Putin.

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As the head of the State Duma committee on labor, social policy and affairs of veterans, Yaroslav Nilov, told RT, at the moment inflation at the level of 5.8% is laid down in the Russian budget.

At the same time, according to the latest data from Rosstat and the Ministry of Economic Development, now the annual rate of price growth in the country is 8.1%.

“If we take the new methodology for determining the minimum wage and the subsistence level, we see that inflation simply eats up this increase.

The same applies to the indexation of pensions ... On the issue of indexation of pensions, the conversation should be continued.

The fact that the president made such a decision can be welcomed in every possible way, ”the deputy noted.

In the context of rising inflation, an increase in the minimum wage and the living wage will slightly increase the real income of the population.

This opinion was shared by the head of the laboratory for the analysis of institutions and financial markets at the Institute for Applied Economic Research, RANEPA, Alexander Abramov, in an interview with RT.

“By increasing the living wage and the minimum wage, various kinds of payments to people from the budget will be automatically indexed.

As a result, consumer demand may grow, and this, in turn, will stimulate production and additionally support economic growth, ”Abramov said.

A similar point of view was expressed in an interview with RT by Pyotr Gusyatnikov, senior managing partner of the law firm PG Partners.

According to him, in a pandemic, the indexation of payments above the inflation level can become an additional help for citizens.

At the same time, the initiative will not greatly affect the state of the Russian budget, experts are sure.

“This year, the federal budget may be executed with a surplus of 1 trillion rubles.

Therefore, the state has the funds to seriously raise the minimum wage and pensions, ”Nikolai Pereslavsky, an employee of the Department of Economic and Financial Research of the CMS Institute, said in a conversation with RT.