The article analyzes the dynamics of the ratio of the average monthly accrued
wages of agricultural workers to wages in the economy as a whole over a long
period of time, as a result of which four sub-periods were identified: the first — from
1959 to 1990, the second — from 1991 to 1999, the third — from 2000 to 2005, the
fourth — from 2006 to the present, characterized by different trends. Despite the growth
of nominal and real average monthly accrued wages of employees of organizations by
the type of economic activity «Agriculture, forestry, hunting, fishing and fish farming»,
its level remains one of the lowest among all types of economic activity, which negatively
affects the attractiveness of the agricultural sector for the employment of young
people, university graduates and older workers. In addition, the gap in the average
monthly accrued wages in agriculture with the highest paid type of economic activity
«Financial and insurance activities» reaches threefold differences. Whereas in one of
the most developed countries in Norway, which ranks second in the world in the human
development index, this gap is 1,7 times. It was determined that the variation in wages
by subjects of the Russian Federation is quite low and amounts to 28 %. It was also
revealed that even in the leading regions producing the largest volumes of agricultural
products (Krasnodar Krai and Rostov Oblast) among all regions of the country, the level
of wages in agriculture is low and is at an average level, but at the same time in the
Belgorod Region, which is distinguished by a high level of intensification and efficiency
of production, ranking third in terms of agricultural production, wages are paid 27 %
higher than the average level in the industry as a whole in all subjects of the Russian
Federation, which indicates the possibility of increasing the level of wages in agriculture
to a comparable level in other types of economic activity.
