The ratio of wages of workers and employees in the censorship industry of the Siberian Region in the second half of the 1920s.

Vladimirov Vladimir Nikolayevich Doctor of History Professor, Department of Russian History, Altai State University 656049, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Lenin Avenue, 61, room 312 vvladimirov@icloud.com Other publications by this author

Introduction

Employees represent a large socio-professional group of non-physical and intellectual workers performing a wide variety of functions related to the management and maintenance of labor processes. The number of employees also includes junior service personnel (MOS), who, unlike other categories of employees, are engaged in simple physical labor (cleaners, watchmen, janitors, etc.) ^{[1, pp. 240-241]}.

This article discusses issues related to the remuneration of employees of the enterprises of the censorship industry of Siberia during the years of the NEP. A comparison of wages, which made up the bulk of the incomes of various categories of employees – (higher administrative and economic personnel (VATP), the rest of the employees and MOS) allows us to identify the degree of income inequality between them, and a comparison of employees' salaries with workers' salaries gives an answer to the question of how great was the differentiation of their financial situation, and not only in general, but also for individual industries. No less important is the question of trends in the dynamics of indicators of this differentiation in a very short period of the NEP, when approaches to state regulation of this important social process were formed.

The state paid great attention to the ratio of wages of various categories of workers and employees, as well as workers and employees in general. As A.A. Ilyukhov notes, since the mid-20s, the state and trade unions have begun to pursue a policy of wage equalization, one of the elements of which was its equalization by industry. This gap persisted, however, until the end of the NEP period ^{[2, pp. 122-123]}. Another important problem was the correspondence of labor productivity and wage growth with the outstripping growth of the former. At the first stage of the NEP, special attention was not paid to this compliance. At the same time, since 1924/25, the salaries of low-paid workers have been gradually "pulled up" to the average. All this did not stimulate an increase in labor productivity ^{[3, p. 235]}. The importance of matching wages to the level of labor productivity was also highlighted in the Siberian press of the NEP period ^[4].

The issue of income inequality between workers and employees, as well as certain categories of employees among themselves, has not found detailed coverage in historiography. Novosibirsk historian V.G. Kokoulin notes the paucity of historical studies devoted to Soviet employees of Siberia: "As for… In Siberia as a whole, the history of employees during the NEP years turned out to be on the periphery of historical research" ^{[5, pp. 89-91]}. In A.A. Ilyukhov's detailed work on the forms and methods of remuneration in our country in 1917-1941 ^[2], the main attention is paid to workers, and the salary of employees remains mostly on the periphery of the research focus.

As sources for studying the salaries of employees, we used statistical materials published by the Joint Regional Bureau of Labor Statistics of Sibkraystatupravleniya, Sibkraisovprof and Sibkraitrud, as well as the Siberian Regional Statistical Department and the state sector of Krayplan. First of all, we are talking about the Bulletin of Labor Statistics of the Siberian Region ^[6] (hereinafter referred to as the BST), published in 1926-1928, and replaced by the Bulletin of Labor and Industry Statistics ^[7] (hereinafter referred to as the BSTP), published in 1928-1929. Both publications have a very similar structure and content and include numerous statistical reference materials in the form of tables and comments to them. The most valuable of them for us are information about the wages of workers and employees of various industries and spheres of labor. A lot of interesting and important materials (mostly aggregated) are also contained in the statistical reference book "Siberian Region" ^[8]. The reliability of all these materials is determined by the high level of specialists working in Siberian statistics, which allowed researchers to define the second half of the 1920s as the "golden age" of Siberian statistics ^{[9, p. 91]}.

Comparison of average salaries of workers, employees and MOS in industry for 1925/26–1928/29 economic years

Let us turn first of all to the most aggregated data on the average monthly quarterly salary of these three categories of workers over the past 4 years (16 quarters) of the NEP. Data on this are given in Table. 1. It includes the average monthly salaries for 4 business years for mining, manufacturing and the entire industry. The table shows a progressive increase in wages both in both groups of industries, and in the entire industry as a whole, during the entire period under review for all categories of employees.

A graphical expression of these trends is shown in Fig. 1-3. Figure 1 clearly shows that wages were rising for workers in both extractive and manufacturing industries, and a faster growth in the extractive industry is also noticeable between 1925/26 and 1926/27. In general, the workers of the extractive industry earned more than their colleagues from the manufacturing industry.

Table 1.

Source: ^{[8, pp. 360-371, Tables 4-6]}

Fig. 1. The average monthly salary of workers in the industry of Siberia, RUB. Based on the materials of Table 1.

Figure 2 shows a sharp jump in the same period between 1925/26 and 1926/27 in the salaries of employees of the extractive industry, which increased by 28% – from 75.47 to 96.61 rubles. For comparison: in the manufacturing industry over the same period, the growth was only 10%. As a result, the salary of employees of the extractive industry has overtaken the salary of employees in the manufacturing industry in terms of its size. This provision remained in place until the end of the period under review. One of the reasons for this dynamic can be attributed to the growing role of Siberia in providing the country with natural resources.

Fig. 2. Average monthly salary of employees in the industry of Siberia, rub. Based on the materials of Table 1.

As for the salary of the MOS (Fig. 3), it was less in the extractive industry throughout the entire period than in the manufacturing industry. After a tendency towards some convergence, over the last period between 1925/26 and 1926/27, this gap has increased again.

Comparison of salaries of workers and various categories of employees for 9 quarters of 1927-1929.

Let's move on to a more detailed comparison of the salaries of workers and various categories of employees. We have at our disposal statistical data for 1927 – the first half of 1929. (Table 2). It should be noted that since 1928, quarterly data have been replaced by data from the average month of the quarter ^{[7, No. 1, p. 6]}, which reduces the accuracy of direct comparisons, however, does not prevent the identification of general time trends.

Fig. 3. The average monthly salary of the MOS in the industry of Siberia, rub. Based on the materials of Table 1.

Processing of the table data allows you to establish the ratio between the salaries of all the categories specified in it. The comparison of indicators in the extractive and manufacturing industries is of interest here (Fig. 4-5). First of all, attention is drawn to the sharp jump (from 156.22 rubles to 217.88 rubles) in the average monthly salary of the mining industry, which occurred between August and November 1928 (Fig. 5). Nothing like this is recorded in other categories of workers. Yes, and the WATP can talk about stable and rather slow growth both before and after the fall of 1928. At the same time, within the framework of the extractive industry, this indicator for the coal industry increased even more over the same period – from 144.15 rubles to 225.67 rubles. ^{[7, No. 2-3, p. 39, Table 12a; 7, No. 4-5, p. 33, Table 14]}. At the same time, as can be seen from Table 2, the wages of mining industry workers began to decline after May 1928 and exceeded the level of May 1928 only a year later – in May 1929. Similar trends are observed in almost all workers in both the extractive and manufacturing industries.

Table 2

Sources: ^{[7, No. 1, pp. 18-19, Table 11; 7, No. 2-3, pp. 36-37, Table 12, pp. 38-39, Table 12a; 7, No. 4-5, pp. 32-33, Table 14, pp. 34-35, Table. 15; 7, No. 6-8, pp. 38-39, Table 13]}

Tabular representation of wage growth for the entire period from the beginning of 1927 to May 1929 (Table. 3) shows that the manufacturing and extractive industries represent different trends in terms of wage inequality. In the manufacturing industry, wage growth was about the same for all categories of workers, with the exception of the MOS, where it was slightly faster than for other categories. In the extractive industry, wage inequality increased due to a faster increase in the salary of the VATP and a slower increase in the salary of the MOS. As for the salaries of workers and employees in general, there was a certain balance, while the wages of workers grew a little faster.

Fig. 4. Average salaries of VATP, employees, workers and MOS of the extractive industry. Based on the materials of Table 2.

Fig. 5. Average salaries of VATP, employees, workers and MOS of the manufacturing industry. Based on the materials of Table 2.

Table 3

Compiled from the materials of Table 2.

The general ratio of salaries of employees and workers in manufacturing, mining and the entire industry and its changes during the studied period are also of interest. To understand these points, according to the table. 2 Table 4 was compiled:

Table 4

Compiled from the materials of Table 2.

The graphical visualization of the data (Fig. 6) shows that, firstly, the ratio of average monthly salaries in the extractive industry (from 1.79 to 2.02) was significantly higher throughout the period than in the manufacturing industry (from 1.70 to 1.84), while the starting and ending points of the graphs in both cases practically coincide. Secondly, the changes in the ratios in both industries occurred quite consistently, which indicates the same factors affecting changes in wages, not least the state policy aimed mainly at equalizing wages ^{[2, pp. 122-124]}. Thirdly, there is a slight upward trend in the extractive industry, which indicates a tendency to increase the difference in salaries of employees and workers in favor of the former. As for the manufacturing industry, the trend line here shows no tendency to increase or decrease the ratio of salaries of employees and workers.

Fig. 6. The ratio of average monthly salaries of employees and workers in the manufacturing and extractive industries.

To find out the general dynamics of the ratios of salaries of employees and workers of industrial enterprises of the Siberian Region throughout the industry in the period under review, we will also use the aggregated data presented in Table. 4. The result is shown in Fig. 7:

Fig. 7. The ratio of average quarterly salaries of employees and workers of the entire industry (1927– May 1929).

An analysis of the values of the value under consideration shows that the average ratio for the period under review is 1.81, and the maximum difference between individual indicators of salary ratios (the range of variation) does not exceed 0.14. This means a very small variation, and in terms of content, we can note the constancy of the ratio of salaries of workers and employees.

Comparison of salaries of workers and employees by individual industries for the period July-September 1927 – February 1929

Based on the sources already mentioned above, we compiled a table showing the wages of various categories of employees in the Siberian industry (Table 5). Based on this table and the previously published table on the movement of wages in the mining and manufacturing industries of the Siberian Territory in 1925-1929 ^{[10, pp. 54-55]}, a table of salaries of workers and employees was formed.manufacturing (by industry) and extractive industries in 1927-1929 (quarterly), in which data are presented for 6 quarters (Table 6):

Table 5

Sources: ^{[6, No. 6, p. 25, Table. 12]}; ^{[7, ¹ 1, p. 28, table. 12]}; ^{[7, ¹ 2-3, pp. 36-39, tables 12, 12a]}; ^{[7, No. 4-5, pp. 32-35, tables 14, 15]}

Table 6

Based on it, it is possible to determine the average salaries of workers and employees by industry for the entire period under review and to identify the ratio of salaries of employees – workers. After ranking these values, we get the following picture (Fig. 8):

Fig. 8. The ratio of average industry salaries of employees and workers

for 1927-1929 .

Earlier in one of our works it was shown that the salaries of workers in such industries as metal processing, printing production and mechanical engineering were the highest in 1925-1929. The lowest salary values were observed among workers engaged in the processing of fibrous substances and the chemical industry ^{[10, p. 55]}. According to Table 6, the highest salaries of employees are recorded in such industries as chemical, leather and fur, mining, as well as in the processing of materials of animal origin and the processing of fibrous substances. The lowest salary was paid to employees of such industries as the production of physical forces and water supply, wood processing, printing production, mining and processing of minerals, food industry, mechanical engineering.

The bar chart clearly shows that among the industries, including the extractive industry as a whole, according to the ratio of average salaries of employees and workers for the period July-September 1927 – January-March 1929, 3 groups are distinguished.

The first category includes such industries as the processing of fibrous substances and the chemical industry. Here, employees received 2.6 times more in the first case, and 2.4 times more in the second case than workers. This group was formed as a result of both high salaries of employees and relatively small salaries of workers

The second group consisted mainly of light industry (plus the extractive industry). The ratio of salaries of employees and workers here ranges from 1.7 (wood processing) to 2.0 (processing of materials of animal origin). This group is characterized mainly by average and low salaries of both workers and employees.

Finally, the third group consists of two basic components of heavy industry (mechanical engineering and metalworking) and such important industries as the production of physical forces and water supply, as well as printing. Here the ratio of salaries of employees and workers is 1.4–1.5. In this group, these industries were mainly due to the high salaries of workers.

Conclusion

In general, during the period under review, the ratio of salaries of workers and employees at the enterprises of the censorship industry of the Siberian Territory was stable and amounted in numerical terms for an employee from 1.4 to 2.6 worker salaries. How significant was this inequality? Apparently, it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to this question, since the real figures varied greatly depending on the industry and the position of the employee. If we compare the situation, for example, with the pre-revolutionary one, then according to S.G. Strumilin's calculations in 1913, senior industrial employees earned 3.94 times more than the average worker ^[11]. However, in this case we are talking about the highest layer of employees, to which in our sources the WATP refers. Our calculations of the ratio of the average salaries of WATP to the average salaries of employees and workers of the Siberian Region showed that they are in the extractive industry, respectively, 1.63 and 3.08; in manufacturing – 1.55 and 2.77; in industry as a whole – 1.56 and 2.82. In other words, the average salary of an industrial worker in Siberia during the period under review was on average 2.82 times less than the average salary of a WATP and 1.56 times less than the average salary of an industrial employee.

This, of course, is lower than the pre-revolutionary level of inequality, but at the same time shows that despite the general equalizing trend in wage policy and the corresponding activity of trade unions, the economic need for the material interest of workers forced to maintain a certain level of wage inequality, and in some employees even slightly increase it, as indicated by the dynamics of decile coefficients and the Gini index among workers and employees of Siberia in the final period of the new economic policy ^{[12, pp. 91-92]}.