Putin raises minimum wage to subsistence level

Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed the law on raising the minimum wage to the subsistence level. The corresponding document has been published on the website of legal information of the Russian government  today.

"To establish a minimum wage from January 1, 2018 in the amount of 9,489 rubles ($165) per month. Starting from January 1, 2019 and further annually from January 1 of the corresponding year the minimum wage is set by the federal law in the amount of the subsistence minimum of the employable population in the Russian Federation for the second quarter of the previous year," the document says.

Information on the value of the subsistence minimum per capita in Russia and in every region in particular is subject to quarterly official publication, as well as to publication on the official website of the Federal State Statistics Service.

The law will come into force on January 1, 2018.

In September, Putin promised that the authorities would increase the minimum wage and stressed that people should not receive less than a subsistence minimum.