RECENT CHANGES IN BENEFITS AND WAGES FOR WORKERS IN THE REMOTE REGIONS OF THE USSR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T01003A000900350001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
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• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 3, 2000
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• Publication Date: June 14, 1960
• Content Type: BRIEF

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CONFIDENTIAL
CIA/RR CB 60-35
CURRENT SUPPORT BRIEF
29
Copy No.
14 June 1960
RECENT CHANGES,IN BENEFITS AND WAGES FOR WORKERS IN THE
REMOTE REGIONS OF THE USSR
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND REPORTS
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This report represents the immediate views of the
originating intelligence components of the Office
of Research and Reports. Comments are solicited.
W-A-R-N-I-N-G
This document contains information affecting the national defense of
the United States, within the meaning of the espionage laws, Title 18
USC, Sections 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which
in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
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RECENT CHANGES IN BENEFITS AND WAGES FOR WORKERS IN THE
REMOTE REGIONS OF THE U R
A recent decree revising the employment benefits for workers in
the Far North and other remote regions of the USSR 1/ evidently is
intended to insure that these regions are settled and that inequities
and.overeompensations that were common in the past are eliminated.
Over the long run, the new decree and concomitant changes in wage
differentials and taxes should assist materially in the solution of
some of the morale and manpower problems plaguing these areas.
Background
After World War II the USSR established a number of benefits
for work in the Far North and other remote regions, intended both
to encourage workers to sign labor contracts and to induce workers
who were "relocated" during World War II to remain in these areas.
On 1 August 1945, the Supreme Soviet approved-a decree providing
the following benefits for workers employed in the Far North: (1)
a longevity premium of 10 percent of basic wages every six months up
to a limit of 100 percent of these wages.; (2) one year's service in
the Far North to be counted as two years for pension credits, and
(3) special leave time of 18 and 30 working days per year in.addition
to regularly e.stablished vacation time for workers with fixed and
irregular working hours respectively. 2/ Other benefits, such as
travel pay, per diem, and living quarters were also added in order
to induce workers to migrate into these regions. In addition, a
decree of 18 November 1945 declared certain geographic areas to be
.equivalent to the area of the Far North in benefits, except that
the longevity premium in this "equivalent region" was established
as 10 percent per year, up to a limit of 100 percent; and that leave
allowances were set at 12 and 24 working days per year for workers
on fixed and irregular hours respectively. 3/ In September 1946,
the regime also decreed a 20 percent wage increase for workers and
-technicians on important industrial and construction projects in the
Urals, Siberia and thePar East. 4/ In addition, the various economic
ministries were empowered to set regional wage- differentials as re-
quired, subject to the approval of the planning, authorities.
These wage and benefit provisions for the Far North and other
remote regions were intended primarily to induce workers to sign
short-term labor contracts (3 years) to work in these areas, al-
though efforts to assure permanent settlement were also made.
The substantial growth of population in the remote regions
(Table 1), however, has now provided a larger relative labor supply,
thus reducing the need for offering extremely high rewards to short-
term workers and for incurring the high costs of moving these persons
from place to place. In addition, the planned relocation of service.-
men now being demobilized could improve further the labor supply in
Eastern USSR. Recent changes in benefits and wages reflect these
developments, and primary emphasis is now being given to maintaining
and expanding a permanently.settled work force in the "remote" areas.
14.June 1960 CIA/RR CB 60-35
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TABLE 1
Percentage Increase in the Population of Selected Remote
Areas of the USSR 5/
Percent Increase
in Population
Remote Areas
(1959 Boundaries adjusted to 1939
Boundaries where possible)
Buryat-Mongolian ASSR
.Irkutsk. Oblast
Komi ASSR
Krasnoyarsk Kray
Murmansk Oblast
Novosibirsk .:Oblast
Primorsk.Icray
Kharbarovsk.Kray
Yakutsk .AS.SR
J.5 a/
24
54
152
35
95
45
52 b/
65-115 c/
22
a. 1939 data include Moldavia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and t e
Western Provinces of the Ukraine and Belorussia..
b. Figure represents a minimum because an accurate adjustment for
the reduced area of the Kray could not be made.
C. These figures represent. minimum and maximum estimates. The
extensive changes in internal and external boundaries preclude
a more precise.estimate..
Changes in.Benefits During 1960
On 10 February 1960 the Soviet government approved a decree
which superseded all previous decrees on.Far Northern benefits. The
new decree lowered the special pension credit of two years for one
year of service to one and one-half year and abolished special leave
allowances for workers on irregular hours. In.addition, the decree
cut in half the longevity premiums in most areas of the Far North and
in the "equivalent" regions--to 10 percent every year and 10 percent
every two years, respectively. The 10 percent premium every six
months was retained only for the.Chukosk.National Okrug of Magadan
.Oblast, the Koryak.National Okrug and the Aleutian Rayon of Kamchatka
Oblast, and the islands of the Arctic Ocean and its seas. Limits on
the total amount of the longevity supplement which could be added to
'basic wages were also lowered--to 80 percent of the basic wageor-,.'..
2400 rubles per month in the Far North and to 50 percent of the basic
wage or 1500 rubles per month in "equivalent" regions, whichever is
less. Previously earned longevity supplements are to be retained in
amounts up to 3000 rubles per month. 6/
Two other provisions of the decree appear to be aimed specifically
at encouraging the permanent settlement of the remote regions. First,
benefits will be granted only to newcomers who have signed labor con-
tracts for five years or longer instead of the three year contract re-
quired under the.old system. The requirement. for a longer contract
14 June 1960 . C.IA/ER.CB 60-3.5
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probably will effectively discourage the migration of persons seeking
to earn high wages for a short time, but should not deter significant
numbers of persons intending to settle permanently in.the remote areas.
Second, the special employment benefits for work.in the remote regions
are to be extended to the "native" population in these areas including
persons who were reared there, as well as members of the families of
migrants. These groups formerly were ineligible for benefits, with
the result that there apparently was a costly cross movement of 'Ina
tives" between regions and a major morale problem.
Changes in Regional Wage Differentials During 1959-60
The relative wage position of the "remote areas" also is being
altered by changes in_regional wage scales and income taxes. 7/
The new system-of unified regional wage differentials now being put
into effect will probably reduce somewhat the relative advantage of
the remote areas. A recent statement by Kucherenko 8/ indicates that
increased attention is being paid by the planning au-Thorities to the
preferential introduction of labor-saving technology into these areas.
Such measures would reduce further the need to pay wage. differentials
of the previous magnitudes. In addition, because average wages in
the remote regions are higher than those in other regions, the re-
duced wages and salaries for higher paid workers stipulated in the
recent decree abolishing income taxes will reduce further the rela-
tive wage advantage of the remote regions.
14 June 1960 CIA/RR CB 60-35
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14--June 1960 CIA/RR. CB 60-35
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Analyst,
Co:ordo
25X1A
Sources,
I.
Joint . Committee. of Slavic Studi
s
"O
A
e
. .
n
djusting the
S
ystem of Benefits for Persons Who Work in the Regions
of the Far North and in Localities Equivalent to Re-
gions of the Far North," The Current Digest of the
S
oviet Press, 16,Mar 60, p. 26-28. U
tr of Vedmosti
.
Verkho
S
vnogo
oveta, SSSR, no 7
18 Feb 60
p
70-72)
2.
,
,
.
ornik akono atel'n kh-Aktov o Trude, 1956, (Handbook
o egislative Acts Concerning Labor, 19 , Moscow
3.
,
osuriz at, IWOU, p. 31 * T.
CIA. FDD Translation no 434, 13 Jul 53, Trade Union
Employees Handbook (Spravochnik profsoyuznogo rabotni
ka)
4:.
.
,
p.. 60- 1 . OFF USE.
S. Figurnov. "Osnoviyye formy provysheniya real'~noy
zarabotpoy platy v SSSR" (Basic Farms of the Increase
in Real Wages in.the USSR), Sotsialisticheskiy trud(,
5
no
-1959, p. 51. U>
5.
Foreign Manpower Research Office, Bureau of the Census.
The 1939 USSR _Census of Population: Organization and
Methodology, aY 1 p. 1 - U.
U entFa . St ,tistical'-Adrd,inistratibn. Narodnoye Khozyay
stvo SSSR
1958
v
Godu (The National Economy of the
6,,
in 1 , Moscow, 19 9, p. 9-18. U.
The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, 16.Mar 60
p
26-
,
.
8. U.
7.
A. G. Aganbegyan and V. F. Mayer, 2arabotnaya plata v
8.
SSSR (Wages in the USSR), Moscow, 19
Speech of-V. A. Kucherenko in the stenographic record
of Plenum TsK KP SS224-29 Jun 59,.Moscow, p. 264-5. U.
14 June 1960 CIA/RR CB 60--35
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RECENT CHANGES IN BENEFITS & WAGES FOR WORKERS IN THE
REMOTE REGIONS OF THE ITSSR
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