Officials’ Wages Grow Twice Faster Than Ordinary Citizens’

The average salary of the workers of the state administration bodies has grown by Bn 100 (or Br 1 million) in a year.

The Belarusian Statistics Committee provides such data in the almanac “Labor and Occupation”. In 2014, the nominal accrued monthly wage in this area was Bn 733, in 2015 the figure rose to Bn 835 in view of the denomination. The average salary in the country during this period has grown by Bn 63, tut.by writes.

A third of state bodies officials live on a salary of Bn 600-800 per month

The Belarusian Statistics Committee also demonstrated how the workers of the state governance authorities are sorted depending on the salaries (this information is dated May 2016). Let us note straightaway that we are not speaking only about the officials — not everyone who works in ministries and state institutions has such status. Besides, a little more than 70 thousand people were registered as workers of the state governance sphere in May this year.

Those who received the wages of Bn 600-800 (the country’s average salary or a slightly bigger one) get the biggest share of the payroll pie. There are 24,8 thousand such people (which makes 35,3%). If we consider all the workers in the country, the group with such salaries will also be the biggest — every fifth worker happened to be in it.

As for the quantitative gap between the richest and the poorest groups of the “people with suitcases”, it remains barely noticeable. In May 2016, there were 2 593 people who lived on a salary lower than Bn 300 (which makes 3,7% of the total number). There appeared no much fewer people who earned Bn 1,5 thousand and more — 2239 people (or 3,1%). If we take a look at the average wages around the country, there will be 4 times more “poor” people than “rich”.

The share of employees with a salary of over Bn 1,5 thousand in the state administration bodies is also comparable to the spheres of transport and wholesale trade — there are also a little more than 3% of them.

Median wage of the “people with suitcases” remains Bn 63 higher than the ordinary Belarusians’ one

The average salary of the public administration employees has grown by Bn 100 in a year. An average Belarusian thus became richer by Bn 63. This is the comparison of 2014 and 2015.

However, the median wage (the sum in the center of the wages row) of the “people with suitcases” differs by these very Bn 63 from the simple workers: it makes over Bn 615 in the state bodies, and Bn 548 — in the country.

The gap between the minimum wage of the 10% of highest-paid workers and the maximum wage of the lowest paid 10% of workers (the so-called decile coefficient) in the field of public administration was 2,6 times. Throughout the country, this figure is higher — 4,1 times.

There have become 863 fewer officials since 2013

The Belarusian Statistics Committee has also compiled a portrait of an average Belarusian state official. Thus, as of July 1, 2015, there were 48,463 public servants in Belarus. However, the statistics do not take into account, for example, the Interior Ministry, the KGB, the State Control Committee, the Operative-Analytical Center, the Ministry of Defense, the Investigatory Committee and other "force structures".

Compared to November 2013 the number of officials was reduced by 863. At the same time, the number of employees of the state administration was 63,7 thousand, as of July 1 of last year. However, the sorting depending on the salaries in May this year, which we mentioned above, was made on the basis of 70 thousand figure.

There are more female officials in our country than male (almost 35 thousand against 14,5 thousand). The positions of supervisors or deputies are also more often occupied by women (3,5 thousand versus 2,9 thousand).

Almost half of the officials have not yet crossed the threshold of 40 years. At the same time, 1,3 thousand (2,6%) of public servants are older than 60 years.

Among the officials, 307 people do not have higher education, 224 people out of this number are women.

Almost one in ten lives in the status of a public servant for over 25 years.