The economic status of Russia’s working population: objective and subjective dimensions

This article examines peculiarities when it comes to the distribution of economic statuses among the working population of Russia, as well as the interconnections of said statuses with various factors which affect an individual’s economic prosperity. Presented is a method for structuring a certain index, the purpose of which is to measure objective parameters of the economic status of modern Russia’s working population. In developing this methodology the author adheres to the neo-Weberian tradition, assuming that an individual’s economic status consists of a set of objective indexes which can be measured quantitatively. In this case these characteristics are as follows: income, the possession of additional real estate aside from the main place of residence, as well as the possession of savings. It is shown that the economic status of the population’s majority has a clearly pronounced “norm”, which is relatively low-level, together with the fact that the possession of additional economic resources such as real estate tends to lower Russian people’s motivation when it comes to increasing their current level of income. Also presented is a series of conclusions which have to do with the specifics of the economic status of Russia’s working people from various educational and professional groups. A certain hypothesis is brought forward and validated, concerning the insignificant effect of educational resource and professional affiliation on the economic status of common Russians. Examined is the effect of employment form on economic status scale indexes, as well as peculiarities when it comes to the distribution of its parameters among age groups. The following conclusion is made: within each successive age cohort there is a decrease in the amount of workers with an economic status corresponding to the Russian “norm”, as well as the amount of those workers whose status exceeds said norm. The objective parameters of Russian people’s economic status are compared with their subjective evaluation of said status. Given the presence of a considerable discrepancy between them, the author comes to the conclusion that objective parameters are not consistent with subjective evaluation. Data from the 24^th wave of the yearly RLMS-HSE survey, conducted at the end of 2015, was used as an empirical base for analysis.

economic status, economic resource, status consistency, human capital, education, professional affiliation.

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