Five federal republics of the North Caucasus are among the worst regions of Russia in terms of the share of the population receiving wages below the state minimum wage.

In 2021, the minimum wage was 150 euros. In Russia as a whole, according to official data, 2.5% of employees receive salaries below this level, which is almost 690 thousand people. The worst situation is observed in Dagestan. There, 13.7% of employed people received wages below the minimum. Next, are North Ossetia (10.8%), Karachay-Cherkessia (10.3%), Ingushetia (9%) and Kabardino-Balkaria (8.3%). The Izvestia newspaper does not provide data on Chechnya and the information on the Rosstat website has not yet been published.

The regions with the smallest share of wages below the minimum wage were the Magadan and Sakhalin regions, the Kamchatka Territory, as well as the Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrugs. In these regions, the share of the employed population receiving wages below the state minimum is less than 1%.

In most ratings of the socio-economic situation of the regions of Russia, the federal republics of the North Caucasus traditionally occupy the last places. Chechnya stands out among them, where unemployment is the most unsatisfactory among all such indicators. However, according to Rosstat, Chechnya ranks first in Russia in terms of payments of benefits to the unemployed.

Kabardino-Balkaria, Stavropol Territory and Karachay-Cherkessia were among the leading regions in terms of the growth of official unemployment from April 2020 to January 2021. The data is provided by the Ministry of Labour.