[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 3:08 AM Subject: [downwithcapitalism] Poverty in the f.S.U. Moscow Times. 26 June 2001. Pulling The Poor Out of Poverty. Excerpts. About 50 million Russians, or 33 percent of the population, live below the subsistence level, according to the State Statistics Committee. The largest segment are the so-called new poor -- those who work hard but receive miniscule salaries. The new poor include most of the country's 800,000 public servants. "A minimum wage cannot be less than the subsistence level," said Irina Rukina, head of the Moscow City Duma's economic policy committee. As long as the minimum salary is less than the subsistence level, no social program will effectively resolve the problem of poverty, said Rukina. The official minimum wage in Russia is 200 rubles ($6) a month. That figure is mainly used to set the salaries of public servants, as well as determine fines. Although 200 rubles falls well below the $44 subsistence level, it is what the government calls a good start. The minimum wage was 83.49 rubles a month until the State Duma last year passed legislation to increase it to 132 rubles. That law raised the wage to 200 rubles in January and will push it up to 300 rubles in July. The Duma earlier this month passed in first reading a bill to continue to increase the wage over the next two years. Under the bill the wage will be raised to 60 percent of the subsistence level next year and then brought in line with the subsistence level in 2003. However, the measure, as good as its intentions may be, is fraught with problems. One issue is whether the already low subsistence level will be an adequate sum to live on in two years, once inflation and other economic fluctuations are factored in. For the government, which has to fork out the salaries for public servants, the question is where the extra money will come from. "I sorrowfully watched the deputies pass that fine legislation allowing for an increase of the minimum wage," Labor Minister Alexander Pochinok said after the June vote, Interfax reported. Pochinok said the bill will cost the government 2 trillion to 2.5 trillion rubles ($68 billion to $85 billion), a sum that exceeds the annual federal budget. He said that the government cannot afford to increase the minimum wage to the subsistence level earlier than 2005. Currently, the gap between the richest 10 percent of Russians and the poorest 10 percent is 14.1 times, according to the State Statistics Committee. Lilia Ovcharova, a member of the International Labor Organization's Team for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, estimated that the gap in Russia to be 23 to 25 times. By comparison, the gap in Europe is as high as 12 times, according to Profil magazine. * * * * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
