Снижение неравенства в оплате труда в России: динамика и ключевые факторы (2005–2023 гг.)

Журнал Новой экономической ассоциации. 2024. № 4(65). С. 267–275.

Lukyanova A.

The paper examines the decline in earnings inequality in Russia since the early 2000s. The Gini index for earnings fell by nearly 40%, from 0.48 to 0.30. Using the data from two household surveys, we document the trends in inequality between 2005 and 2023 and identify potential drivers behind the trends. Econometric analysis employs RIF-based decompositions. My findings indicate that wage structure effects were the primary contributors to earnings compression, while composition effects—except in the 2020s—tended to exacerbate inequality. The paper highlights the most relevant explanations of changes in earnings inequality, including rising minimum wages, educational upgrading accompanied by declining returns to education, demographic shifts, regional convergence, narrowing rural-urban gaps, changes in industrial structure, and industry premiums. Importantly, there was a notable distinction between the period following 2018–2019 and earlier years, both in terms of the slowdown in inequality reduction and the mechanisms driving this reduction.

Keywords: Russia, РМЭЗ, RLMS, earnings inequality, decomposition, RIF-регрессия, неравенство в оплате труда, RIF-regression