Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to provide additional support to the regions with the financing of new monthly allowances for families with children, paid from birth to 17 years.

This is stated in documents published on Thursday, November 10, on the Kremlin website.

In addition, according to the order of the head of state, the Cabinet of Ministers will have to control the correctness of the appointment and the timeliness of payments.

As the Russian leader noted earlier, the authorities are obliged to debug all organizational issues and monitor the implementation of the initiative in practice.

“At the same time, I will outline the fundamental requirements.

Registration and receipt of a single allowance should be as clear, simple, and convenient as possible for citizens.

And, of course, citizens should have complete information so that people know what to do and how.

Of course, this should serve as real support for families,” Putin stressed at a meeting on November 8.

The new allowance is expected to come into effect on January 1, 2023.

The initiative will combine a range of social protection measures and will affect families in which a total of about 10 million children are being brought up.

The amount of the payment will depend on the income level of the parents and will be 50, 75 or 100% of the regional subsistence minimum.

On average in Russia next year it will be 7 thousand, 10.5 thousand and 14 thousand rubles.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the authorities will allocate 1.4 trillion rubles from the budget for the implementation of the program in 2023.

As Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Thursday, low-income families with children should receive the most targeted assistance from the state in solving material problems.

Against this background, the head of the Cabinet asked to strictly monitor the implementation of measures to support parents in all regions of the country.

“The head of state stressed that the main task is to minimize the threat of poverty for Russian families.

To do this, we are building an integral system of assistance for them,” the prime minister added.

In favor of real income

Vladimir Putin also instructed the government to prepare by January 15, 2023, proposals for an accelerated increase in the minimum wage (SMIC) and an increase in its gap from the subsistence minimum.

This, according to the President, will make the budgets of Russian families more sustainable.

“It is important that the incomes of citizens, especially families with children, grow at a rate higher than inflation.

We really, I want to emphasize this again, according to all experts and the government, the downward trend in inflation is sustainable ... We need salaries to outpace price increases, ”Putin said.

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  • © Mikhail Metzel

Recall that the minimum wage sets the minimum wage that a full-time employee can receive.

In addition, the indicator is used to calculate benefits for temporary disability, as well as for pregnancy and childbirth.

The living wage, in turn, is used to assess the needs of citizens when providing such state support measures as monthly payments to low-income families with children.

In accordance with the Constitution of Russia, the minimum wage cannot be less than the subsistence minimum.

According to the plans of the authorities, in the future the difference between these two indicators should exceed 30%.

This, in particular, was stated by the Minister of Labor and Social Protection Anton Kotyakov.

“In the federal budget for the next three years, the growth rate of the minimum wage is set above the growth of the subsistence minimum, and at the end of the three-year period, we expect the difference to reach 10%.

This, of course, is not enough.

We plan to continue this work in order to consistently achieve the target,” the head of the Ministry of Labor added.

It is noteworthy that in 2022 the minimum wage and the cost of living have already been indexed twice and now amount to 15,279 and 13,919 rubles, respectively.

Moreover, from January 1, 2023, the indicators are planned to be further increased - up to 16,242 rubles and 14,375 rubles, respectively.

“Thus, the aggregate growth rate of basic social guarantees will be higher than the projected inflation of 12.4%.

The total annual growth of the subsistence minimum will be 13.6%, and the minimum wage - 16.9%,” said Anton Kotyakov.

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  • © Vladimir Trefilov

In many ways, the minimum wage is determined by the efficiency of enterprises in each individual area, Nikita Maslennikov, head of the Finance and Economics department at the Institute of Contemporary Development, told RT.

Against this background, according to the expert, an important role in the accelerated increase in the minimum wage should play an improvement in labor productivity.

“We can recall a special project of the Ministry of Economic Development to study world practices for increasing labor productivity and introducing them into Russian production.

The agency insists on extending the project until 2030, which seems logical in the current situation.

In addition, a fundamental increase in the minimum wage, as well as the average wage, must be achieved by increasing internal and inter-industry competition,” Maslennikov believes.

According to the expert, in this regard, the President's order looks timely.

Thus, as the economy recovers in the coming years, an increase in the difference between the minimum wage and the subsistence minimum will accelerate the emergence in Russia of a system of so-called indicators of social return.

“The bottom line is that people should benefit from economic growth and, in general, from projects that support the state financially.

Gross GDP growth means little to citizens if their earnings do not grow.

As in the case of inflation, we need to target the level of real disposable income of Russians, ”the expert is sure.

The increase in the minimum wage should contribute to the growth of domestic consumption, analysts say.

This, in turn, can have a positive impact on the supply of goods and services in the country, as well as on the state of the economy as a whole.

“Increasing the minimum wage is the way to a general increase in wages in the country, since, for example, the incomes of state employees directly depend on this parameter.

We are talking about workers in the field of education, medicine, government agencies and law enforcement agencies.

That is, an increase in the minimum wage significantly above the subsistence level will lead to an increase in the income of the population, which will become a factor in increasing consumer demand and guaranteeing the growth of the economy of the whole country, ”Artyom Deev, head of the analytical department of AMarkets, said in an interview with RT.