Income differentiation in pandemic conditions: analysis of main trends and processes

The article provides an analytical assessment of the differentiation of money income of the population. The analysis was carried out at the level of the Russian Federation and one of the regions of the Central Federal District - the Orel region. In the course of the economic and statistical analysis, official statistical data of the Federal State Statistics Service, the Territorial Body of the Federal State Statistics Service for the Orel Region were used by constructing time series, comparative coefficient and graphical methods of the analysis. Income of the population is the most important category that affects all spheres of the economy, independence and viability of the state. It also reflects the degree of social production development and determines its growth. Income is the main factor in ensuring a decent standard of living for the population, and, as a result, a factor in the reproduction of the human resources potential of the economy. The pandemic of a new coronovirus infection was one of the main factors that determined the results of the social and economic development of the region and the country in 2020-2021. The introduction of lockdown measures led to an inevitable decline in the standard of living of the population. However, measures of the state social support had an undeniable positive impact on the level of income of the population. During the study period, more than 80% of all incomes of the population are distributed between two sources: wages and social benefits. An analysis of the differentiation of incomes by 20 percent groups of the population showed that the distribution of money incomes did not change significantly over the period under study. As before, the largest share of income, both at the level of the Russian Federation and at the level of the region, falls on the group with the highest income. During the pandemic, the share of the population with the lowest and average income increased. In the period of 2020-2021, there is a decrease in the income coefficient and Gini coefficient. The lockdown measures have significantly strengthened the already established trends in the structure of the formation of cash income in the direction of reducing business income. An analysis of the current situation showed that the state pays great attention to the problems of the standard of living of the population, and as a result, some positive results are observed in some directions.