The concept of "living wage" has been introduced into legislative acts and into everyday life since 1998. In essence, it is the monetary equivalent of the value of the “consumer basket”. This "basket" is a set of foodstuffs, as well as non-foodstuffs and services, which is the minimum necessary for survival. Each region has its own living wage and its own cost of the consumer basket, but in Moscow they are much higher than in the whole country.
Consumer basket value
The cost of the consumer basket is used to justify the value of the minimum wage (minimum wage). The size of the minimum wage, in turn, determines the amount of social payments that the state undertakes to support socially unprotected categories of citizens. Due to constant inflation, the cost of food, industrial goods and services is a variable, but constantly growing. At the same time, in each region, the quantity and cost of goods that make up the "basket", as well as the real inflation rate may be different.
By decrees of the government of the constituent entities of the Federation, the value of the subsistence minimum is approved for each region on a quarterly basis.
The capital of Russia is a city of federal subordination, that is, it is equated in status with a subject of the Federation, therefore, the value of the cost of the consumer basket is also determined for Moscow. The living wage in Russia as a whole, according to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 233 of 2014-27-03 for the IV quarter of 2013 was:
- per capita - 7326 rubles;
- for able-bodied citizens - 7896 rubles;
- for pensioners - 6023 rubles;
- for children - 7021 rubles.
In the city of Moscow, the cost of living, according to the Decree of the Government of Moscow No. 81-PP from 25.02.2014. amounted, respectively: 10965, 12452, 7908 and 9498 rubles. For comparison, these values for the Moscow region are: 8072, 8971, 6068 and 7724 rubles, respectively.
Why such difference
To begin with, the Moscow government made sure that Muscovites eat better: the annual consumption rate of meat and meat products for residents of the capital exceeds by 100 g the norm established for the whole country, and the consumption rate of such products as bread, pasta and cereals for them higher by as much as 4, 36 kg. But these are, of course, trifles that do not explain such a large, almost one and a half times, difference.
The number of people with incomes below the subsistence level in Moscow is 10.3% of the population, and in Russia as a whole - 11.1%.
It is explained mainly by the fact that Moscow is home to a completely solvent population, since unemployment in the city is less than 0.5% - only about 25 thousand people are registered on labor exchanges. The absence of unemployment is an economic factor that explains the high level of wages. According to Rosstat, in the capital, the average wage is almost 5 times higher than the subsistence minimum. With the high level of wages, which in other regions is not even possible to dream of, prices are also growing. True, this concerns not so much food as transportation costs, housing costs and utility bills.
