Abstract
The economic reforms announced under the leadership of Gorbachev have given enterprises greater scope for decision making, as well as greater financial responsibility. Broader wage differentials and labour saving incentives have become the cornerstones of a reformed wage policy based on self-financing. However, new and old features coexist and need to be examined separately, against a background of legacies, ideology and economic constraints which do not favour modernising schemes, and often prevent the seeds of reform from developing to their full potential. This chapter examines the relationship between wages, employment and productivity and presents the main lines of the new wage policy against the background of traditional Soviet wage theory and practice.
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Notes to Chapter 6: Wages, Employment and Labour-Saving
See K. Marx, Il capitale, 3 vols (Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1965) 2nd vol., Chapter 21, pp. 522–42.
D. Dyker, The Process of Investment in the Soviet Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983) pp. 103–13, shows that the formulas used to estimate capital effectiveness in Soviet planning favour long-term investment projects and excessive capital intensity.
Improvements in the efficiency of production and in commodity circulation help reduce the positive difference required between rates of growth of productivity and wages, but they do not eliminate the need for it. For a comprehensive discussion of these theoretical issues see A. G. Aganbegian and V. F. Maier, Zarabotnaia plata v SSSR (Moskva: Gosplanizdat, 1959) pp. 38–60.
A more sophisticated version of this approach is in A. G. Aganbegian and D. D. Moskovich (eds) Puti povysheniia effektivnosti narodnogo khoziaistva (Moskva: Ekonomika, 1984) pp. 31–5.
See A. Bergson, The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928 (Cambridge: Harward University Press, 1961) pp. 249–58.
V. F. Maier, Uroven’ zhizni naseleniia SSSR (Moskva: Mysl’, 1977) pp. 172–8.
See J. G. Chapman, ‘Recent Trends in the Soviet Wage Structure’, in A. Kahan and B. Ruble (eds) Industrial Labour in the U.S.S.R. (N.Y.: Pergamon Press, 1979) pp. 153–6 and 176–7. On the relationship between consumer goods and wage differentials, see also Ekonomicheskaia strategiia sotsializma. Aktualnye ocherki (Moskva: Nauka, 1988) pp. 98–102.
See G. E. Schroeder and B. S. Severin, ‘Soviet Consumption and Income Policies in Perspective’, in U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Soviet Economy in a New Perspective (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1976) p. 631.
See L. A. Gordon, op. cit., p. 16. See also S. Malle, ‘The Heterogeneity of the Soviet Labour Market as a Limit to Efficiency’, in D. Lane (ed.) Labour and Employment in the USSR (Wheatsheaf Press: 1986) pp. 133–6.
See A. McAuley, Economic Welfare in the Soviet Union (London: Allen and Unwin, 1977) pp. 202–204.
See J. Kornai, The Economics of Shortage, vols 1 and 2 (North Holland, 1985) and Growth Shortage and Efficiency (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1982) and D. Granick, Job Rights in the Soviet Union: Their Consequences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
P. Hanson, ‘The Serendipitous Soviet Achievement of Full Employment: Labour Shortage and Labour Hoarding in the Soviet Economy’, in D. Lane (ed.) Labour and Employment in the USSR (Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books: 1986) pp. 83–111. Hanson’s provocative analysis of Soviet employment records is shared by the Soviet labour expert, K. Minkul’skii, who defines full employment as the ‘perverse’ (izvrashchennyi) outcome of Soviet growth, see ‘Vysvobozhdenie rabotnikov i pravo na trud’, Voprosy ekonomiki (1989) no. 2, p. 54.
See S. N. Zlupko, Teoretiko-upravlencheskie aspekty zaniatosti v razvitom sotsialisticheskom obshchestve (Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1985) p. 110 and Ia. I. Fel’dman, Fond zarabotnoi platy v sisteme material’nogo stimulirovaniia proizvodstvennykh kollektivov (Moskva: Nauka, 1987) pp. 122–3.
See A. N. Voronov, Pokupatel’nyi fond naseleniia i tovarooborot (Moskva: Ekonomika, 1981) pp. 12–13, 31–2.
Cf. J. Adam, Employment Policies in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary since 1950 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984) pp. 21–4 and 64–6, and Employment Policies in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (London: The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1982) pp. 126–7, points out, too, that the policy of low wages depends primarily on the Soviet strategy of economic growth based on heavy industry and military spending not only in the USSR but also in other socialist countries.
For an appraisal of such failures, on managerial practice see J. S. Berliner, Soviet Industry from Stalin to Gorbachev (Aldershot: Edward Elgar Publishing Co. Limited, 1988) pp. 269–97, and on the actual operation of the planning system, Ed A. Hewett, Reforming the Soviet Union, Equality versus Efficiency (Washington D.C.: The Brooking Institution, 1988) pp. 182–220.
See V. Kostakov, Proizvodstvo i liudi (Moskva: Izd.vo Polit. Literatury, 1971) p. 7.
See S. I. Shkurko, Stimulirovanie kachestva i effektivnosti proizvodstva (Moskva: Mysl’, 1977) pp. 117–22.
See G. I. Grotseskul, ‘Shchekinskii metod okhvatyvaet territoriiu’, EKO (1985) no. 6, p. 147, V. Fil’ev, op. cit., pp. 59–60 and Sotsialisti-cheskaia industriia, 30 July 1985, p. 1. According to P. G. Bunich (Samofinansirovanie (Moskva: 1988) pp. 23–4) transport staff cuts affected comfort and safety standards.
See also W. J. Conyngham, The Modernization of Soviet Industrial Management (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) pp. 160–62.
See V. F. Garbusov, O gosudarstvennom biudgete SSSR na 1985 god i ob ispolnenii gosudarstvennogo biudzheta SSSR za 1983 god (Moskva: 1985) p. 34.
The main source is V. Rzheshevskii, ‘Povyshenie zainteresovannost’ trudovykh kollektivov v rabote s menshei chislennost’iu’, Sotsialisticheskii trud (1984) no. 5, pp. 60–9, and V. D. Rakoty, Stimuly k trudu v novykh usloviiakh khoziaistvovaniia (Moskva: Profizdat, 1986) pp. 53–70.
V. N. Mosin (ed.) Planirovanie narodnogo khoziaistva (Moskva: Vysshaia shkola, 1982) p. 329.
See Zh. Sidorova and A. Gol’dman, ‘Formirovanie fondov oplaty po trudu’, op. cit., p. 102 and N. A. Smirnova, Zarabotnaia plata v sistema khoziaistvennogo rascheta (Moskva: Nauka, 1987) p. 75.
This indicator is mentioned for the first time with the 1987 State Enterprise Statute. According to P. G. Bunich (Samofinansirovanie (Moskva: Finansy i statistika, 1988) p. 25) if the enterprises calculate their net output over the total range of their products, the gross revenue is equal to net output.
See G. V. Bazarova (ed.) Rol’ finansov v sotsial’no-ekonomicheskom razvitii strany (Moskva: Finansy i statistika, 1986) pp. 133–5 and V. D. Belkin and V. V. Ivanter, Planovaia sbalansirovannost’. Ustanovlenie, poderzhanie, effektivnost’ (Moskva: Ekonomika, 1983) pp. 55–7.
See L. Kostin, ‘Perestroika sistemy oplaty truda’, Voprosy ekonomiki (1987) no. 11, p. 41. On inequalities depending on the structure of production rather than on individual work effort, see M. Yanowitch, Social and Economic Inequality in the Soviet Union (White Plains, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1977), pp. 11–14.
See I. L. Batukhtin, Sovershenstvovanie metodov analiza truda i zarabotnoi platy (Moskva: Ekonomika, 1975) pp. 213–14.
According to S. Shkurko, Sovershenstvovanie form i sistem zarabotnoi platy (Moskva: 1975) pp. 133–5, this differential was too low to ensure parity of work intensity between the two groups of workers.
Iu. P. Batalin, Dvenadtsataia piatiletka (Moskva: 1986) p. 80, reports a 0.31 rate of increase for piece-wages and 0.21 for time-wages. The estimated wage differential in 1984 is based on the total blue collar workers wage fund in 1975 and 1984 and assumes an actual 1.05 wage differential in 1975. Estimates thus obtained on piece-workers and time-workers respective wage funds in 1984 are the closest to the official estimates of the total blue collar workers wage fund. The formula used to estimated wages in 1975 is Wb/Lt = (Lp/Ltwp/wt + 1) wt, where Wb is the total blue collar workers wage fund in 1975, estimated by the product of the number of blue collar workers and their average wages. Lp and Lt are respectively the number of piece-workers and the numbers of time-workers. wp/wt is the ratio of their respective wages.
See E. K. Smirnitskii, Dvenadtsataia piatiletka. Slovar’ — spravochnik 1986–1990 (Moskva: 1986) p. 86, 150.
On the utilisation of the MIF, see S. I. Shkurko, Stimulirovanie kachestva i effektivnosti proizvodstva (Moskva: Ekonomika, 1977) p. 231 and S. I. Shkurko, ‘O povyshenii stimuliruiushchei roli tarifov i okladov v zarabotnoi plata’, Planovoe khoziaistvo (1983) no. 8, p. 75.
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© 1990 Silvana Malle
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Malle, S. (1990). Wages, Employment and Labour-saving. In: Employment Planning in the Soviet Union. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11588-4_7
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