The Structure Of Soviet Wages

Economists and others concerned with the theory of wages or with the functioning of Soviet economy will find this investigation of the inequality of wages in the Soviet Union an illuminating study. Based on data used by Soviet administrators in making their decisions, it establishes for the first time in a scientifically acceptable manner the principles according to which differences in earnings in the U.S.S.R. are determined. It is also the first study to present comparable data on the inequality prevailing under capitalism.

Soviet Wages is the only detailed description and analysis of contemporary earnings determination for Soviet industrial workers.

This study analyses the newly available statistical evidence on income distribution in the former Soviet Union both by social group and by republic, and considers the significance of inequalities as a factor contributing to the demise of the Communist regime. Among the topics covered are wage distribution (interbranch and skill differentials and distribution in terms of gender, education, and age), income distribution for the former USSR as a whole, and wage and income distribution patterns for each republic, with analysis of regional differences.

Originally published in 1981, this study is concerned with the extent to which the goal of sexual equality in employment, as set out, for example, in the Soviet constitutions of 1936 or 1977, had been realised in the USSR at the time. The main focus is on the nature and extent of economic inequality in the Soviet Union; the subject has wider implications, not only for our understanding of the USSR but also for our perceptions of the way that labour markets operate in a more general setting. The book should be of interest to feminists and labour economists as well as those with a professional interest in the Soviet Union.

The plight of women in post-reform Russia has its roots in the combination of the new, untrammelled market system and the old legacy of discrimination. The Soviet Union was the first country to give women equal rights and equal pay, but this was not carried through in practice. This is the first study to apply modern econometrics to survey-data collected in the USSR. Analysis of data from Russia shows how legislative equality hid actual discrimination. Katz also challenges the conventional wisdom that, for ideological reasons, Soviet manual workers were favoured over the highly educated. Gender, Work and Wages in the Soviet Union includes a critical survey of economic theories of gender and wages and the Soviet wage-system. The final chapter brings the debate up to date by examining how old and new mechanisms of gender inequality interact in post-Soviet Russia.

Monograph on changes in economic policy and incomes policy in the USSR - examines income differentials (incl. By sector, intra-industry, according to sex, etc.), social implications, the effects of income distribution on the standard of living and on social stratification, etc., and analyses the principles of wage determination. Bibliography pp. 125 to 130 and statistical tables.