The article examines the relevance of the study of productivity and wages, highlights the specificity of their relationship in the agricultural sector. On the basis of agricultural organizations of the Kursk region, an analysis of the dynamics of labor productivity in comparison with the dynamics of wages was carried out. A degressive model of wage growth has been identified that does not contain an incentive to increase the productivity of employees. On the basis of the constructed mathematical models for the growth of productivity and wages in agricultural enterprises of the Kursk region, conclusions are drawn about the imbalance of material motivation due to the fact that labor productivity increases in the form of a polynomial function with an increase in wages that is closer to a linear function. The thesis about the disproportions in the growth of productivity and wages was confirmed, and the need for corrective actions and the development of recommendations for both managerial decisions at the level of economic entities and for state regulation of the industry was substantiated. At the level of organizations, more active use of differentiated pay systems is justified, in which the level of remuneration will be directly related to the productivity of workers and the results that they contribute to financial indicators, as well as providing employees with the opportunity to participate in the capital of the enterprise and the distribution of profits with direct participation in organization management. Recommendations have been developed on the need to link the allocation of state support to the level of wages in the organization and more active use of methods of non-material incentives for managers and owners of agricultural organizations from the state.