Wage of labor as an indicator of the deterioration of the economic situation

The general economic situation in Russia and its regions in recent years is characterized by a crisis associated with the depreciation of the national currency and increased inflation, especially in the food segment. This contributed to the deterioration of the general standard of living of the population due to a decrease in the purchasing power of incomes, which, despite the preservation of nominal growth, are actually at the level of previous years, and in some regions are even declining. At the same time, the level of wages as the main source of income remains a key parameter that reflects aspects of the emerging economic situation. The article considers wages as an indicator of the deterioration of the economic situation in the country and regions of the Central Federal District based on an analysis of the dynamics of nominal and real wages in comparison with the change in the real cost of the minimum conditional set of food products, which made it possible to assess what is growing more dynamically and how it affects socio-economic situation in the country. It was revealed that despite the continued trend towards dynamic growth of nominal average wages both in Russia as a whole and in individual regions, an assessment of the dynamics of the level of average wages in comparable prices showed that the actual growth of the indicator is less significant. As a result, in general, in Russia over the past 4 years, in fact, the average wage has increased by 10.5%. Comparison of the growth rate of the real size of the average wage with the growth rate of the cost of the minimum set of products showed that in the vast majority of regions of the Central Federal District, the real growth in food prices is more dynamic than the growth in the level of wages.