For First Time Since 2015, Amount of Unpaid Back Wages Employers Owe Workers Jumps in 2024 – and by Over 40 Percent over a Year Earlier

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Feb. 20 – One of the problems which plagued Russia during the 1990s and which Moscow had worked hard to solve has now come back with a vengeance: for the first time since 2015, the amount of money employers owe workers for unpaid back waves rose in 2024 and by 43.5 percent over the amount in 2023, the Sibreal portal reports.
    The total amount is still relatively small – 508 million rubles (five million dollars) – but it continues to grow and there are serious doubts that the real total is being reported by the government, especially as Rosstat’s claim in that regard is demonstrably untrue (sibreal.org/a/v-rossii-vpervye-za-9-let-vyros-dolg-po-zarplate-srazu-na-43-5-/33319578.html).
    The Sibreal portal documents that workers in state enterprises in regions east of the Urals say they have not been paid what they are owed with their government employers saying that there is no money but they need to keep working so that the institutions will survive and they will eventually be paid.
    The likelihood is that this problem extends to the rest of the country as well and is feeding anger among workers who are already squeezed by rising prices and declining government assistance programs and who see that their government bosses continue to pay themselves and live well.