Russia's social system no longer has any need for the "survival strategy" that the government had been pursuing over the past decade. What is needed now is a social policy that "creates an environment enabling a person to realize him- or herself." This was the objective that Prime Minister Mikhail
Kasyanov defined yesterday (March 19) at a conference of deputy governors overseeing social problems.
However, no one at the conference yesterday ventured to guess how many years
and how much money would be needed to create such an environment. The conference limited itself to summing up the results of the past year and discussed plans for 2002.
In the opinion of Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko, 2001 was "the most stable year" [in recent history]. The average per capita income increased by a third, totaling 2,900 rubles a month. The average salary last
year increased by 20% and stood at 3,200 rubles per month. The average pension (throughout the whole of Russia) grew by 21% and practically reached
the minimal subsistence level for a pensioner, according to Matviyenko. Besides that, the unemployment level dropped substantially and the strike movement hit a record low.
However, Mikhail Kasyanov focused on other statistics. What does not suit him is the following: although Russians' real incomes grew by more than 15% over
the past two years, they have still not reached the 1997 level. The proportion of the population with incomes lower than the minimal subsistence
level has dropped from 28.1% in 2000 to 27.6% in 2001. But even this, in the
prime minister's opinion, is "unacceptably high." Kasyanov is also dissatisfied because the wage arrears problem has come up once again in a number of regions, even though the government steps in quickly with the necessary assistance and is keeping a close eye on the problem.
Matviyenko pointed out that only 30 of the 89 regions do not have a wage arrears problem. On his part, Labor Minister Alexander Pochinok gave assurances that his ministry intends to carry out spot checks "to determine and punish those enterprises that were not paying their employees wages and salaries on time."
The new Labor Code that became effective on February 1 allows for such "punishment." For each day salaries are delayed, the employer can be subjected to a fine of 1/300 of the sum of the debt. In the event of a 15-day delay, employees have the right not to report to work without declaring a strike.
But judging from what is going on, employees are not yet aware that they have such rights. Matviyenko announced that the government had yet to push through another 42 legislative acts before the Labor Code started working at full force.
In order to implement the pension reform, the Duma has to pass one single law - on the investment of money earmarked for accumulating pensions. The Duma is expecting to examine the draft of the law in its second reading. Since such a law does not yet exist, the Pension Fund will temporarily invest money in state bonds with a nominal value designated both in rubles and hard currency. The prime minister signed a government decision on this matter yesterday.
"We are coming closer to understanding that we must expand our social policy," declared Mikhail Kasyanov, who holds that "the standard of living and consumer demand" now constitute "the chief factor of economic growth."