In July 2017 the average monthly salary in Russia was 38,619 rubles (US$665), which is 8.6% higher than the year before. The average wages statistically increased both in rubles and in USD. The increase in USD is about 4.6%. The data is provided by the official government’s statistics agency Rosstat.
Which professions pay the best in Russia?
You know it’s not medical doctors, who are mostly paid by the government and barely make an average wage working 1.5 shifts to make the ends meet. It’s also not teachers or nurses, traditionally female-dominated and low-paid professions. Teachers only made in July 2017 around 22 thousand rubles ($380). But it’s country-wide school holidays, so there is no overtime.
The lowest paid were the workers of the manufacturing sector, making clothes and leather goods: just over 20 thousand ($347).
However, there is an industry, which remains the highest paid for years: Oil and gas mining. Here the average monthly wage is over 95,000 rubles ($1.6K). Getting a job in the oil mining sector is like a dream come true for Russians, especially if the job is at the office and not in the mines.
Remember, remuneration is calculated monthly in Russia. When talking about pay checks, it’s monthly figures.
Top-10 industries with the highest wages
- Employees of oil and gas mining bring home around 95,040 ($1637).
- Rather high remuneration, 89,525 rubles a month ($1541), is paid to workers of tobacco manufacturing
- Insurance and finance average is 81,888 rubles monthly ($1410).
- Chark and oil goods production: 76,891 rubles ($1324).
- Science and development: 67,863 ($1168).
- Wages in the fishing industry are around 59,967 ($1032).
- Professional, scientific and technical personnel: 58,566 ($1008).
- Mining of metals: 57,895 ($997).
- Information and communication workers earn 56,825 per month ($978).
- Production of medicine and medical supplies: 54,556 ($939).
Government officials promise that wages in Russia will increase by 10% within 3 years.
In Moscow salaries are higher than on average in Russia. In the Russian capital employees bring home about $1153 a month (66,981 rubles).
Read also:
- Professions and occupations of Russian and Ukrainian women
- How Russian, Ukrainian women on low wages manage to travel the world and live exciting lives?
- Slavic women seeking men on dating sites vs. immigrants: careers and work
- Salaries vs. wages of Russia and Ukraine: What’s the difference?
The part about the doctors’ wages is the unfortunate truth. It is by far the most difficult profession, knowledge-wise, and the fact, that they have to work from dawn till dusk and get such small eages is simply unjust in my pinion. That is the reason, they are all leaving for non-government commercial clinics, but what is the government supposed to do with people, who don’t earn enough for paid medicine? Also true about the oil industry. It’s the most important one in Russia now, altough i wouldn’ like working in the mines myself. I guess it pays well, but… Read more »
yes, it’s true that medical personnel and doctors earn very little in Russia. Foreigners cannot believe it.
Disagree. Good doctor makes a killing in Russia. The average government paid doctor in a clinic gets paid shit, that is absolutely true, but it’s also true that the “quality” of their service is on comparable level. There’s no difficulty “knowledge-wise” in being a medic in Russia. The average doctor does not keep up with new studies and research. There are frequent headlines of monstrous mistreatment and misjudgment of patient’s condition, often with fatalities. On top of that, it’s not half as bleak as it seems. It’s very common to “gift” doctors. I.e if you’re to have a surgery, or… Read more »
Dima, you are correct, averages are highly misleading. The situation with people’s wages would be much clearer if the governments published data on median earnings (median means that 50% of the people earn more, and 50% less). This would be the true level that ‘an average’ person in Russia is taking home as a pay check.
But as we all know since Mark Twain’s times, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” 🙂