Official: Russia to cut number of state employees, raise wages

MOSCOW, Mar 19 (PRIME) -- The Russian government will start to reduce the number of state employees and raise wages to a competitive level in 2020, First Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko said in a speech to the Federal Treasury on Tuesday.

She said that the number of regional governments’ employees will be cut by 5% in 2020, by 10% in 2021, and the number of the staff of the federal government by 10% over the two years.

“We are doing this to find the resources to change the wage system,” Nesterenko said.

“We cannot spread the decision to increase wages to this large, burgeoning state management system.”

She said that the government aims to make government’s wages competitive.

“We have tentatively assessed this competitive level in the state management system, discussed it at a state management committee under the Russian Federation president, and with the government and have taken the decision in general,” she said.

“But without optimizing (the number) such decisions cannot be implemented, it takes a lot of money.”

The key component of the reform is to raise the permanent part of wages to 60% of the payroll and cut the floating, stimulating part to 40%. “Now this pyramid is inverted,” Nesterenko said.

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