Russian average wage almost the same as in Belarus
It used to total $100 a year ago and now it is $540.
The Russian Federal Statistics Service has published information about the average wage of December 2014. It totalled 41985 roubles. If you deduct the income tax it will be 36527 roubles. Now it totals a bit less than $655.
The net average wage totalled $1000 a year ago. However, the situation in Russia has dramatically changed in comparison with December.
The dollar exchange rate has increased by another quarter and an average Russian can only buy $537 a month now.
Secondly, December wages are very high in Russia. The holiday bonuses increase the wages by a third and then the wages go back to their November level in January.
Thirdly, Russia did not work for half of January because of long holidays. All these factors will reduce the net average wage to about $420 in January 2015, Nasha Niva reports.
