WAGE CATEGORIES IN SOVIET INSUTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700070145-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 145
• Publication Date: June 25, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTRD
CENTRALSINTELLI ENCEAGENCY
REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Economic - Wages
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily news-paper
WHERE
PUBLISHED Moscow
DATE
PUBLISHED 13 Apr 1952
LANGUAGE Russian
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DATE DIST, -,t Jun 1952
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
WAGE CATEGORIES IN SOVIET INDUSTRY
The growth of labor productivity in the USSR is accompanied by au increase
in wages while at the same time productivity is increased faster than wages. As
a result of this, a systematic lowering of production costs is secured as well
as a growth In the socialist of capital. roductivity and diminished productioncostsprovidectheiSoviet increase
government
with the opportunity of carrying on its policy of lowering prices, which leads
to a steady increase in real wages and to a further elevation in the nation's
standard of living.
This is why trade-union organizations =at tirelessly explain to wcrkers
and employees, and particularly to new arrivals in industry, that the struggle
for raising work productivity and lowering production costs is of vital inter-
est to each worker.
The wage system is based on pay rates, wage scales, and wage-qualification
manuals. Such manuals group all types of work in relation to their complexity
and degree of labor expenditure. Various wage rates are established for workers
of different qualifications and occupations. .
The wage scale correlates the rates of pay of workers with different quali-
fications. Thus in machine building at present the wage rate of workers in the
eighth category, as a rule, is 2.6 times higher than the wage rate in the first
_ategory. One of the wage scales used in the machine-building industry is the
following:
Wage rates 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Wage coefficients 1.0 1.13 1.28 1.46 1.67 1.95 2.30 2.60
The wage coefficients of the scale determine how much more a worker of a
given category is paid than one in the first category, that is, a worker per-
forming the simplest unskilled work in the same wage scale. The wage scale and
rate of pay are determined by the government. The management of an enterprise
has no right to introduce changes in them.
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DISTRIBUTION
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The wage scale is the most widespread means of establishing rates of pay
in relation to qualifications and working conditions. But in different fields
of industry this problem is solved in other ways. In the coal industry, for
example, there is no customary wage scale and wage coefficients. All workers
are distributed in ten qualification groups and wage rates are established for
each occupation. Hourly wage rates are set up for determining pay for units
of time (day, hour, month).
Enterprises generally have one wage scale with several rates in the first
category as follows: for regularly paid workers and for pieceworkers in cold,
hot, and hazardous work. In hot and hazardous work the wage rate is 12-15 per-
cent higher than in cold. In cold work pieceworkers get a higher rate than do
regular workers.
Adjustment of the wage category to the worker and the determination of
work categories is accomplished on the basis of wage-qualification manuals.
They contain examples of the work most frequently met in a given branch of pro-
duction as well as such requirements as a worker's skills, knowledge, ability
to organize his work space, etc. These manuals must be corrected and supple-
mented in relation to new inventions and technological development, the mastery
of new Hypes of production, and changes in working conditions.
A system of salaries has been established for paying engineering and tech-
nical workers and employees. The system stipulates the minimum and maximum
salaries for each occupation. Within these limits a salary is established for
each worker, depending on volume of work, qualifications, and education. In
addition, engineering and technical personnel are rewarded with bonuses for
fulfilling and surpassing production plans and for lowering production costs.
Two types of payment are used in industry, agriculture, transport, and
construction: piecework and regular. The basic one is piecework. It best ex-
presses the direct connection between the results of work and `:ie earnings of
the worker. For that reason, it is necessary to strive 'or the transfer of all
such workers to piecework for whom output or time norms can be set.
Progressive piecework helps the growth of work productivity still more
than the direct piecework system of pay since the rate of pay for surpassing a
part of the norm grows progressively Thus in constructions of the Ministry of
Construction of Machine-Building Enterprises a scale is in effect by which sur-
passing the norm by 20 percent increases the rate of pay by 50 percent, while
surpassing the norm above 20 percent increases the rate of pay by 100 percent,
that is, doubles it.
The regular system of payment, in which the atimuius to improving work is
less pronounced, can be successfully combined with the system of awardinE
bonuses, primarily in raising quantitative indexes.
The Soviet government has established a system of preferences and privi-
leges to stimulate the flow of workers into the more important branches of the
national economy and to encourage long service in those branches. Additions to
wages and salaries are paid either as a monthly percentage or as a single re-
muneration at the end of the year. The longer the length of service the higher
the remuneration. In addition, workers long employed in a single branch of in-
dustry are rewarded with orders and medals by the USSR government and receive
an increased old-age pension.
There are plant and shop wage commissions in each enterprise. They have
been created to attract a wide membership and participation in solving ques-
tions relating to pay, norm setting, and organization of ~'crk. The plant-wide
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F
STAT
commission is strengthened by the plant committee of the trade union. The
chairman of the commission or his deputy acts as the chairman of the factory,
plant, local (or shop) committee on the Appraisement and Conflict Commisstbn.
The activity of the wage emission is defined by statute and confirmed by the
All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions.
The duty of the commission is to participate actively it the solution of
all questions regarding pay and to make certain that every pay system employed
in the enterprise attains the required production effect. The commission also
participates in the formulation of collective contracts and exercises control
over its fulfillment regarding questions of norm setting, pay, trainin and
raising workers' qualifications. g'
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